


Old Ghosts

by VirginiasWolf



Category: Sons of Anarchy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Other, pretty much every character appears so nobody gets tagged
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-22 21:45:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 33
Words: 36,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14317797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VirginiasWolf/pseuds/VirginiasWolf
Summary: What if Chibs had failed to kill Jimmy O'Phelan? Two years later Jimmy has returned and the face of Charming and SAMCRO will forever be changed.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a completed work that I'm slowly moving over from fanfiction.net. There will be some small grammar fixes and edits here and there, but no major plot points will be changed.

Despite the stab wounds having avoided all of his internal organs, it had been a long road to recovery. Of course, there had also been the time he'd had to spend convincing the Irish kings that he was now a changed man. It was all a lie, he was still the same man he'd been before Filip Telford had attempted to murder him but he knew he had to do anything he could to get them to allow him to work with the gun trade with SAMCRO again. Of course, he was under Galen now which was less than desirable and to stay a ghost he had to stay away from his wife and stepdaughter, but it would all be worth it by the end of today.

He had been waiting for this day for months; the day when he'd finally get to see the look of shock and horror on Filip's face as he seemingly emerged from the grave. From inside of the barn he watched as the motorcycles approached. There were three of them, Jax Teller who seemed confident as ever as king, Filip who had been named Vice President and Happy Lowman who Jimmy was sure would have been an honorable soldier if he'd been on the other side. However, he was sure that all three men would soon get the biggest shock of their lives and would suddenly no longer be interested in abandoning gun running.

Now, he had to wait and listen.

He watched as the three bikers and Galen along with two of his other men met in the center of the yard.

"Where's your truck?" Galen asked the blonde biker with an air of distaste that Jimmy could even hear from his hiding spot.

"There ain't one coming" Jax responded seemingly with an air of cockiness that had only gotten stronger since the last time they'd met. He could already tell that this arrogance would lead to serious problems for the young biker and although he knew that he would cause some of the problems, he wasn't the least bit apologetic.

After a pause, Jax added "We can't take anymore KG 9s Galen, I already told you that. We got too much heat."

The next man to speak was Galen's right hand, a fool of a man who always seemed to think he was telling some great joke "you don't have to take them, just pay for them."

He could hear Filip say something to Jax, but due to the man's thick Scottish brogue he couldn't actually understand the words, however, in response to them Galen glanced in his direction and the two men briefly made eye contact. The time wasn't right for the bikers to see him though, so he sunk further into the shadows as the other man turned back to Jax.

Jax seemed to take on his good boy tone "look, we get pinched with the guns we're dead, and then you got nothing."

Galen turned again, this time not quite making eye contact before responding "Have your So Cal charter take the KG 9s. We can fold them into our next shipment."

There was a pregnant silence before Jax spoke again "San Bernadino voted down the guns."

"That's unfortunate, the kings are all set on the idea of doubling our business here. Looks like that burden falls on you now. You're not getting out of guns son. Cause needs you. Greater good." even though he couldn't see Galen's face as he spoke, Jimmy could immediately tell that the comment was meant as a promise that harm would come to the club if the biker tried to back out.

However, the promise seemed to have no meaning to Jax who just snorted and shook his head. "You know why my old man wanted out?"

"Don't know. Don't care. Lifetime ago." Galen was beginning to respond with an arrogance that matched Jax's.

"Yeah it was, but nothing's changed. JT realized there's nothing more dangerous than a gangster who thinks he's got God in his pocket." the insult to the IRA cause was obvious, but when Galen only laughed in response Jimmy reigned in his urge to make his presence known and continued to listen from the shadows. "The cause may have been the greater good at one point, but for guys like you, Jimmy O. It's just killing people with Catholic bullets to lighten your own pockets."

He would never admit to being nervous at that moment, but the second Jax mentioned his name Jimmy briefly wondered if somehow the biker knew he was hiding and watching. However, almost as soon as the thought entered his mind it was gone, almost nobody knew that there really had been associates of his waiting. Of course, he would have preferred if they'd arrived before he had his near-death experience, but as he'd laid on the side of the road unconscious, presumed dead his men had come in and retrieved him, leaving the old cop knocked out. Charming PD had wanted nothing more than to sweep the IRA incident under the rug so that had worked well to his advantage. There was absolutely no way Jax knew he was alive.

Galen chuckled at Jax's comment "It's kind of funny that you'd mention Jimmy O'Phelan right now. You know, we had a talk recently."

Much as he expected, Filip, ever the hothead lunged at Galen "What do you mean you've talked to Jimmy?"

The offer to at least partially reveal himself right then was too tempting to resist and briefly, he stepped out of the shadows right as Filip glanced in his direction, making eye contact with the other man almost as a taunt. Although he stepped back into the shadows after mere seconds, the Scotsman was already lunging towards where he'd been standing.

"Chibs, what the fuck are you doing?" Jax spat lunging towards the older man.

"He's there. He's in the barn!" Chibs stopped moving now panting as Jimmy took the opportunity to escape through a backdoor.

"Who?" Jax asked grabbing the older man's arm.

Chibs whirled around so fast that Jax stumbled backward and fell to the ground "Jimmy!"

"Chibs, Jimmy's dead...you killed him." Jax managed to regain his footing as he spoke.

In the background, Galen let out a chuckle and Jax turned to glare at him "What's so funny?"

"I didn't know it was so easy to trigger Filip." the Irish man immediately returned his expression to one of seriousness.

"We're leaving now. Until I decide if we take the KG 9s keep your hands off my club!"

"Aye, hands off," Galen responded with fake sincerity.

Chibs spent the drive back to Teller-Morrow stewing. He knew that what he had seen in the barn wasn't a figment of his imagination. The taunt in Jimmy's eyes had been all too real and there was no way he would have imagined his nemesis with faint facial scarring that mirrored his own. He wasn't a man who believed in ghosts either, but he had a feeling he'd just seen one.


	2. Chapter 2

Right now Jax couldn't be angrier. His vice president had diverted from the group to head back to Teller-Morrow due to hallucinations of a dead man and to top things off Tig and Ratboy's excursion into the neo-nazi camp had gone horribly wrong.

"Chibs is smart enough to know that Jimmy's dead. He shouldn't have let Galen's bullshitting spook him." Jax fumed to Happy as they dismounted their bikes and approached the other club members.

"Maybe he's been hitting Juice's weed." Happy responded.

By the time Happy finished speaking him and Jax had gotten close enough for the other group to hear part of their conversation.

"Who's been hitting my weed and where's Chibs?" Juice asked puzzled.

"Chasing a phantom." Jax snorted before addressing the problem at hand. "What happened?"

"Some of their crew spotted Juice and Darby after we got on the inside," Tig answered.

Jax sighed "Goddamnit, Juice."

"We got out whole, but he..."

Darby cut into Juice's speech "But now they're coming after me and Reyna."

"I'm sorry man." Jax glanced at Darby's wife, who was now standing on the steps, as he spoke. "Bring her to TM. We'll keep you safe."

Before Darby could respond Reyna shook her head as if to say it was definitely a refusal. Darby, however, seemed to consider the offer for a few seconds before rejecting it. "Nah, this is on me. It's my wreckage. Just a matter of time before this went down. I gotta handle it."

"How big was this crew?" Jax asked turning back to Juice, Tig, and Ratboy.

"I only saw five guys." Ratboy responded.

"Yeah, the guys that took us had the nazi hooks but it didn't look like an organized effort," Juice added as Jax heard his phone go off.

Immediately he recognized Filthy Phil's number on the screen. Phil and V-Lin were at the gun warehouse, but he couldn't imagine what reason the large prospect would have for calling.

"What?" Jax offered as a greeting.

"A warm hello to you too Jackson." the voice at the other end offered. Jax immediately felt a chill go down his spine when he realized who he was speaking to.

"Jimmy." he released the name almost like a poison. "Where are you?"

"Galen and I are at your warehouse. I'm afraid your club is down two members, or two prospects anyway."

"What did you do to Phil and V-Lin?"

"You'll see soon enough...and Jackson, you will take the guns or I will make sure your club loses even more members and I don't think you can afford such a blow. Put Filip on the line please, I think we have quite a lot to talk about."

Instead of responding, Jax immediately slammed his phone shut and stormed back towards the group.

"Who was it?" Juice asked reading his expression of anger and confusion.

"Jimmy O'Phelan."

"That's impossible." Juice returned.

"I wouldn't believe it myself, but Chibs saw him when we met with Galen. That's why he took off, he got spooked. I thought he was just imagining it, but I know who I talked to."

"Did he say where he was at?"

"The gun warehouse." Jax paused "He claimed to have hurt Phil and V-Lin. I'm going to go check it out; Happy, Tig, Juice you're with me. Rat, stay with Darby and Reyna."

"Do you want me to call Chibs?" Juice asked racing to keep up with Jax's footsteps.

"No, I'll have a talk with him later about this. Right now we need to find out what happened to Phil and V-Lin."

When the four motorcycles pulled up outside the building labeled Oswald Lumber Jax almost felt like maybe he had spoken with a ghost. That was until he saw the blood trail leading up to the closed doors.

"Phil?" he yelled not expecting an answer after what Jimmy had insisted over the phone.

"V-Lin?" Tig added to the yells.

Each man drew their guns and apprehensively Jax opened the large doors with the other bikers trailing close behind him. Lying on the ground were two SAMCRO cuts with their own gory message plainly left on them. Lying on each of the cuts were the hands of their of respective owners. Jax could hear the flies buzzing and smell raw rotting flesh before his eyes even panned up to see the mutilated corpses of the prospects. Immediately he knew the mutilation had to be Galen's touch, Jimmy seemed to have a weak stomach for the disfigurement of corpses and had probably been standing outside chatting with him whenever the prospects were being chopped up.

The group spent a couple of minutes just staring at the corpses before Jax spoke again "Happy, Juice you put them in the crates, we're going to give them a proper send off...I need to go talk to someone."

Back at the clubhouse, Chibs was sitting at the bar. He knew he should be out with Jax and Happy and by now he had managed to convince himself that what he'd seen possibly had only been a phantom created by Galen's words. However, he'd look foolish to just go hunting for the other two men around Charming so he sat and downed another whiskey hoping that he'd soon be able to get the taunting phantom of a face that had leered at him from the shadows out of his head. That was until Jax burst angrily through the doors of Teller-Morrow pushing a crow-eater who happened to be in his path aside so hard that the woman fell.

Chibs got up from his stool to meet the younger biker halfway across the room "What was that about Jackie?"

"You knew he was alive!" Jax stormed glaring at the Scotsman.

"Who the bloody hell are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb on me Chibs, you conspired with him. He probably told you that if he died his goons would hurt your wife and daughter, but you didn't think about how stupid it would be in the long term! Your lapse of logic just cost Phil and V-Lin their lives! Their blood and the blood of anybody else he kills is on your hands!"

It took Chibs a matter of seconds after Jax's speech to realize what the president of SAMCRO was talking about "This is not my fault! Do you think I'd want that bastard alive?!"

"I don't know Chibs, I just talked with a man that my VP assured me was dead...but he's obviously not is he? Opie, Piney, Kozik, and Unser saw you kill him, but you pulled one hell of a hoax before their eyes! I don't even know if the club can trust you anymore, but I can't afford to lose another member! Otherwise, the club would be voting on if you'd keep your patch!"

Glaring, Chibs watched the president walk away. As much as he was beginning to develop a strong distaste for everything the younger man did and said, he knew the only way to make sure his nemesis really was put in a grave was to at least pretend to follow along with Jax wanted.


	3. Chapter 3

The night air was damp and a bit cold for California, but Chibs barely noticed the chill he was so intently focused on the small airport in front of him. Although it was literally the bleakest of hopes maybe if he caught somebody like Jimmy or even Galen trying to leave tonight he could prove to Jax that he wasn't in on some big scheme or at least the recently reborn nightmare would end for him.

Ratboy was sitting passenger in the van, but the prospect was currently silent. Earlier he'd made the mistake of trying to make conversation by commenting that the older biker seemed to be more eaten up by the current situation than the other club members. It had been an innocent comment, the younger man hadn't started prospecting until after he'd "killed" Jimmy but Chibs was in no mood to talk about what was going on. Instead of providing an answer he'd lit another cigarette and purposely blew smoke in the prospect's face.

Everything seemed to be dead for the time being so he checked his watch. In Charming, it was 11:30 PM. He paused taking a few seconds to calculate the nine-hour time difference. It would only be 7:30 AM in Belfast, but over the madness of the past twenty-four hours Jax had watched him like a hawk. Even though the younger man knew he had family in the UK he had a feeling that any call placed overseas in the presence of the biker would be assumed to be to his imaginary associates in the IRA. However, Jax couldn't have possibly given the prospect orders to monitor him without looking like the paranoid fool he was becoming. This meant now would be a safe time to make his call. Even if it hadn't, he knew he couldn't go through this madness much longer without reaching out to contact his wife. It wasn't just a matter of how much calmer he always found himself after talking to her, this situation could very well mean that she too was in danger.

"What are you doing?" Ratboy asked eyeing the phone as Chibs took it out of his pocket.

"What's it to you Prospect?" Chibs snapped before apologetically mumbling "personal call."

As expected after ringing multiple times the phone was picked up with several groggy swear words in both English and Gaelic which he listened to with growing amusement before cutting them off "I hope you haven't taught our daughter all those nasty words Love."

After he finished speaking the tone of the voice at the other end changed "Is something wrong? It's awful early for you to be calling."

He'd hoped he could hide his emotions for a short time and just catch up before being forced to tell the real reason for his call, but she knew him far too well and had immediately noticed his attempts at joking were strained. "Yeah Fi, something's wrong."

He could immediately hear the worry in her voice "What is it Sweet Boy, are you hurt?"

Chibs took a deep breath before speaking again, "has anything strange happened to you or Kerrianne? Have you seen anything or anybody that didn't seem to belong?"

He could the sound of footsteps at the other end and imagined she was pacing back and forth across the bedroom as she tried to answer his question "what is this about?"

"Please think Fi, this is important." he paused to take another drag from his cigarette continuing to watch the airport as he waited for her answer.

"There was something." Fiona paused before speaking again "but that couldn't be important."

"What is it?" he jumped on the comment, knowing that with a dead man alive even the most seemingly meaningless of events could have meaning.

"Somebody broke into our flat last week."

He couldn't help but feel a bit enraged that he hadn't already been informed about the incident "why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Because it didn't make any sense Filip, the thief only took our wedding photo. Why would they do that?"

"Shit!" Chibs swore so loudly that in the passenger seat Ratboy jumped and turned to glare at him.

"Filip, why would they take our wedding photo?" the confusion and worry had deepened in Fiona's voice and her normally calm demeanor seemed to have turned to near hysterics as she seemed to sense how deep what was about to be dropped on her was.

"He must have had one of his henchmen break in and steal it."

"Who? What's going on?"

"Jimmy is alive. He killed two of the prospects. I'm scared he'll go after you and Kerri next. I don't want to lose my girls again Fi."

There was a sharp breath intake at the other end of the line "You said he was dead Filip."

"I thought he was. I...I stabbed him. I spat on his corpse." He hadn't intended to choke up, not with Ratboy riding passenger, but discussing what was going on with Fiona was like a catharsis and he couldn't help himself and he could feel the lump form in his throat as he tried to swallow his tears to avoid looking foolish.

"I know Love, I know." even though they couldn't touch through the phone from her tone of voice it was almost as if she was there in the van holding him in her arms. He could tell that the thought that he'd been involved in some sort of horrible cover-up had never crossed her mind.

He paused trying to catch himself before his accent combined with his tears caused his speech to sound like muffled gibberish. "You have to be careful Fi. Don't trust anyone and don't even let Kerrianne leave the house by herself."

There was a long gap of silence at the other end of the line and for a moment Chibs wasn't sure what to expect until Fiona spoke again "What are you going to do Love?"

"When I catch him I'm going to kill him. I'm going to make sure he's dead this time. Until then, until I know for sure my girls are safe nothing else matters."

As soon as he hung up the phone Ratboy turned to glare at him, mouth open almost to the point where it seemed as if his jaw would hit the floor.

"What the fuck are you staring at boy?" Chibs asked the prospect.

"You have a past with the man who killed Phil and V-Lin don't you?"

Despite still trying to stop his crying Chibs almost managed a chuckle "I think that's a huge understatement."


	4. Chapter 4

In all the time spent watching the airport, Chibs hadn't caught a single person coming or going. Although Ratboy had been able to doze in the passenger seat for a couple of hours he hadn't been able to catch a wink of sleep either, as every time his lids drooped Jimmy's face in the barn came to him. The most eventful part of his night came when a couple hours after he'd placed his first call to Ireland, Fiona called again ignoring the time difference and together they'd told Kerrianne everything. When he heard his daughter crying at the other end of the phone he'd barely managed to keep from again tearing up himself. However, the last thing his daughter needed was to know how scared he was. After he'd hung up the cellphone a second time, the night remained eventless.

Shortly after dawn, his cellphone went off again. This time it was Jax at the other end. Although he could sense that there was still a lack of trust in the younger man's voice, he listened until the younger man was finished talking and obeyed when told to meet him at the Irish's alcohol warehouse.

Chibs spotted a McDonalds on the way to the warehouse and pulled into the drive in. Without asking the prospect what he wanted he immediately ordered two coffees and two breakfast burritos.

The younger man eyed the burrito suspiciously as it was handed to him. "You do know there's probably some weird meat substitute in this, not any actual beef, right?"

Chibs hadn't meant to snap, but within moments he'd grabbed the burrito out of the prospect's hands and flung it out of the car window. "Well, now you don't have to eat it, do you? We wouldn't want you to get food poisoning now, would we? But who knows, maybe if you died from it you wouldn't actually stay dead and would come back in one, maybe two years tops!" at this point, he didn't really care if Ratboy didn't understand that it wasn't personal, he just needed to take his anger out on somebody, and since the object of his rage didn't deserve the satisfaction of knowing how scared and angry he'd made him it was only fitting that a placebo target be used.

By the time they arrived at the warehouse, Ratboy was glaring out the window ignoring him, but Chibs felt much better. He knew that if Jimmy was in the warehouse he'd be able to face him without showing any sort of fear and more than anything he was determined to watch the smirk disappear from the other man's face.

When he first stepped out of the van and ran over to where Malone had been plowed down by the boxes Chibs almost felt elated. He had a feeling that Jimmy wouldn't be far off and was prepared to catch his nemesis scrambling to escape the warehouse like the nonconfrontational coward he seemed to have become, or possibly always had been. Even when he'd considered O'Phelan among his friends years earlier the man had never seemed to want to actually do anything that involved getting his hands dirty.

After searching for several minutes the prospects returned seemingly empty-handed. Almost as if he was afraid Chibs would unleash hell on him again when he spoke Ratboy tentatively delivered the last news the older biker wanted to hear. "There's nobody else in the warehouse."

"Jesus Christ!" Chibs yelled purposely kicking a stack of crates over in his rage before lunging at Malone who was now being held up by Happy and Juice. "Where is he?! Where's Jimmy O'Phelan?!" he swung his fist hitting Malone in the jaw as if the punch would bring out an answer quicker.

"I don't know! Galen assigned him to another project!" Malone responded, pausing to spit blood on the ground.

Now Jax was interested as well, "What other project?!"

"I don't know! They didn't tell me!"

xxx

Personally, Jimmy hated the task Galen had handed to him. If all went as planned, there would be massive casualties, which of course didn't bother him, but Filip would be among the casualties. This in itself also didn't bother him, the biker deserved to die. However, he had wanted to watch the life drain from the other man's face as he'd intended to do to him only a couple years earlier. Not to mention, the delivery man suit he was expected to wear to sneak into Teller-Morrow and plant the keg bomb looked frumpy and unflattering.

Jimmy was busying himself with removing the keg bomb from the delivery van when a figure came up behind him.

"Hey, you need any help there? I'm not much for heavy lifting, but I could probably sign for whatever it is you're delivering." automatically he turned towards the source of the voice, regretting his choice almost immediately. It was the old cop that had helped the club lure him to his attempted murder. Something flashed in the older man's eyes, and he immediately knew his cover was blown.

He'd left his gun back at the apartment he shared with Malone after Galen had insisted he couldn't shoot his way into the clubhouse, but he still had his bare hands and he had no doubt the old man was about to reveal him. In a split second, he grabbed the older man, whirling him around and pinning him to the side of the van, out of sight of anyone exiting the clubhouse. His hand went over the man's mouth trying to muffle any attempts to draw attention.

"Listen you stupid bastard, if you tell anyone what you saw, I will..." his words were cut off by a hard bite from the mouth of his captive. "You stupid fucking prick!" Jimmy jumped backwards briefly, glancing unintentionally at the blood oozing out of his hand. Unser tried to take the opportunity to escape, attempting to dart through the opening that had been left when the other man reacted to his bite. However, he reacted too slowly and Jimmy managed to land a blow to his jaw.

The old man dropped like a sack of bricks and suddenly Jimmy realized his cover might still be at risk. He wasn't sure if the man was simply unconscious or actually dead, but in either situation, he didn't have time to dispose of the remains properly. It wasn't a secret that he was alive, and he'd quite enjoyed seeing the pain his reappearance had caused for SAMCRO, but if he wanted to please Galen and be allowed to return to his former status he had to get the keg bomb into the clubhouse without the pesky cop waking up and warning everybody before he was off the premises.

The trunk of a vacant car on the lot proved to be a suitable dumping place for the body. Almost as an afterthought, he'd searched the older man's pockets and found a handkerchief which he'd wrapped around his wounded hand. It would still be glaringly obvious and the wound would need proper treatment and dressing later, but at least if he covered the teeth marks he could claim to have cut his hand while moving the keg. He didn't plan to be noticed, but an obvious bite wound would attract the attention of the wrong kind far too easily.

Once in the clubhouse, he knew he had to keep his head down, hiding under the brim of the tacky delivery man hat as much as was possible. Of course, he'd need to attract someone's attention to sign over the keg, but a crow-eater could probably easily fulfill that need and would be unlikely to recognize him. Near the bar, he found his easy mark. The girl looked to be barely older than what his stepdaughter would be now, and this he realized could make her a gullible target. After assessing her to make sure she wasn't actually someone close with the club and really was merely a whore he approached her hoping she'd be too dumb to realize his accent could also be a dead giveaway.

"I have a keg that needs to be signed for."

The woman paused for a second. "I don't know if I can help you with that. I should get Gemma, she's the boss around here."

Jimmy managed to keep his composure "You shouldn't bother your boss sweetheart, she's probably a very busy woman. It will only take a second then I'll be out of your hair."

He could immediately tell he'd weakened the crow-eater's resolve "I suppose I could sign for it, but I'd need a pen."

Jimmy produced the pen that had been in the front pocket of his work shirt and handed it to her, along with the clipboard. As she wrote down her signature he leaned against the counter, carefully placing the photo his goons had stolen a week earlier in the crossword book on the counter just sticking out enough that someone looking closely might become curious. At one point in the past, he'd noted that Filip had a fondness for filling out crossword books and hoped that his old "friend" would see the missing photo moments before being blown to pieces and know exactly who had killed him.


	5. Chapter 5

Tara pulled into the parking lot of Teller-Morrow and had barely had a chance to exit her car when Chuckie raced up excitedly with a crowbar in his stubby hands and presented it to her. Warily, the doctor looked the tool over as if expecting it to attack her on its own. "I really don't think I need to carry a crowbar to protect myself Chuckie." whenever she tried to hand the tool back to the man so that she could grab the groceries out of the backseat of her car, however, he seemed to become even more excited.

"Unser's in the trunk of that car over there!" Chuckie gestured with his fake hand to a light blue Sedan.

Tara was unsure if she should continue to humor Chuckie's whim until the old cop's familiar voice called out from the trunk of the car he had been pointing at. "Hello? Chuckie? Somebody?!"

She was so shocked by the utterance that the crowbar briefly fell out of her hands clanging to the concrete. "Oh my god." regaining her composure she turned back to Chuckie. "Get Gemma and tell her that I need her help."

As soon as he raced off she ran over to the trunk, trying to calm Unser knowing full well that her weight alone likely wouldn't be enough to leverage the trunk door open. "Wayne, it's Tara...I need you to stay calm and tell me exactly how you got in the trunk."

There was an extended silence and for a moment Tara almost thought that Unser had passed out. After a few seconds, however, he spoke. "It was the delivery guy...I think he was one of the Irish soldiers...the IRA."

Trying to keep Unser talking, Tara wracked her brain attempting to remember the names of the IRA members Jax was trading with. Finally, a name of one of the men popped into her head. "Galen O'Shay?"

Unser seemed to reflect for a moment before asking "Is that the one Chibs stabbed?"

Before Tara had time to be confused by Unser's question, Chuckie raced back over with Gemma close behind.

"What happened?" the older woman asked.

"Somebody stuffed me in the trunk of this car!" Unser responded almost indignantly.

"He must have had a stroke in there," Tara added, "He's claiming that an IRA soldier Chibs had stabbed was here dressed as a delivery man."

Unser's glare was apparent in the tone of his voice with his next response. "I didn't have a stroke. I just got knocked out and stuffed in here."

"Check him out later Doc, we need to get him out of the trunk first." Gemma addressed Tara as she fitted the crowbar into the seam of the trunk door. After the crowbar was fitted she instructed "Grab my waist. Chuckie, grab Tara's waist." as a reassurance to Unser "we'll have you out of there soon Wayne."

With Gemma, Tara and Chuckie pulling the car trunk leveraged open after a few seconds. Inside, Unser was laying on the fabric of the trunk glaring up at them. The only visible injury was a swollen jaw, but that didn't stop Tara from immediately entering doctor mode.

Several minutes later, Unser was sitting on a barstool holding an ice pack to his jaw and barely complying with Tara's insisted medical exam when the doctor noticed a red stain on his pants pocket.

"Wayne, you're bleeding."

Looking down, Unser automatically touched the stain. "I don't think it's mine." after a few seconds he added, "I bit the guy when he grabbed me, he must have taken my handkerchief."

Realizing that a stroke victim would be incoherent and jumpy in their story Tara felt a chill go down her spine, she suddenly realized who he was talking about, the man she'd held in the trunk of her own car a couple of years earlier, but he had to have his facts confused, the man he was implying had been at Teller-Morrow was resting six feet under, the club had confirmed that multiple times over and Unser had even seen the murder take place. Still, the implication that any true IRA member had been at the clubhouse meant that Jax needed to know, and fast.

The club was getting ready to return to Teller-Morrow to await the phone call from the Irish when Jax's cellphone went off. Glancing at the phone screen he recognized Tara's number. For a brief second Jax balked at the idea of answering, what if the voice at the other end wasn't Tara, but some monster who had mercilessly slaughtered her to taunt SAMCRO.

"We're on our way back to Teller Morrow, can this wait until then?" he asked answering the phone.

"Unser thinks he saw an IRA member planting something in the clubhouse." Tara purposely left out the part about which member Unser had thought was responsible assuming that Jax would think she had gone completely insane.

Jax raked his hand through his hair before responding "Shit! Evacuate the clubhouse now. We're on the way back right now, but make sure everyone gets out."

As soon as he hung up the cellphone he turned towards the group of bikers "Jimmy O'Phelan was at TM. Unser saw him."

"Shit Jackie, is everyone okay?" Chibs asked horrified.

Instead of answering, Jax added "We need to get back to the clubhouse right now. I had Tara evacuate everyone, but we don't know what he has planned."

When the SAMCRO members arrived back at the clubhouse, everybody was crowded in the parking lot. Gemma immediately walked over to the group, "Tara said you wanted everybody to evacuate, what's wrong baby?"

Jax decided to be completely blunt "Jimmy O'Phelan is alive, and I've been led to believe he was here today."

Gemma seemed taken aback for a second, "Are you sure? If what you're saying is true, why would he be here?"

Almost as if to punctuate Gemma's question, a loud bang shattered the night's stillness. Everybody in the parking lot dove to the ground automatically, sensing that something was very wrong. After a few seconds, Jax looked up at the building in front of them. The clubhouse that had stood since his father's days as club president was now in the midst of bright orange flames.


	6. Chapter 6

Even though no physical injuries had been obtained, mentally the entire club had been rattled by the explosion the night before. Still, at the break of dawn, each member had taken to the rubble trying to resurrect what could be saved of their second home. In a way, it also would serve to show Jimmy O'Phelan that he could never bring SAMCRO down, at least that's what Chibs was telling himself as he searched through the rubble that had once been the long bar that dominated the clubhouse. Planning to toss it into the large black garbage bag Ratboy had been following him around carrying, he picked up the scorched remains of a book of crossword puzzles in his gloved hands. A singed photograph fell out of the book, floating to the ground face up as if it had it's own mind and wanted to be seen.

Both him and Ratboy looked at the photo at the same time, Chibs immediately froze, but the younger man not yet noticing his actions remarked: "they look happy."

The couple in the photo did indeed look quite happy, they were obviously newlywed. The man was wearing a suit that looked borrowed and the woman had wildflowers woven into her black curls.

Chibs looked at the photo for a few more seconds before storming out of the wreckage of the clubhouse.

"Is he crying?" Ratboy whispered to Juice as the two men approached the figure standing in the corner. Chibs was turned away from them and they were far enough across the lot that they couldn't hear him, but the shaking of the large biker's shoulders seemed to suggest that the answer to the prospect's question was yes.

"Well, the guy we're chasing right now...he's not supposed to be alive, and Chibs is pretty rattled by that," Juice whispered back.

"And his wife? Why haven't we met her?"

"I've met her." Juice immediately whispered back, "but their situation is complicated."

"But she's in danger, I heard him talking on the phone to her yesterday and he started crying and swearing."

The two men were now close enough to the older biker that he became aware of their presence. Chibs turned around to glare at them, his eyes obviously puffy and red as he hadn't bothered to try to hide what had happened. There had been too much stress put on him lately for him to even pretend everything was okay as long as he was in the presence of allies. However, that didn't mean he was happy to have company at that very moment.

"What?!" Chibs snarled as the other two men approached.

Ratboy remained silent as if he feared that speaking would cause his head to end up on a shiny platter. Juice, however, immediately held out the singed photograph to his friend "You wanna talk? Rat was just heading back inside to help clean up, but I'm totally free."

For a second Ratboy looked as if he wanted to stick around before deciding his head and potential club membership was the top priority and turned to head back to the clubhouse.

Chibs looked as if he was going to push Juice away, possibly quite literally, but after glaring at the younger biker he seemed to almost deflate. He reached out to take the photo from Juice before speaking "He wants me to know he can get to her and I can't stop him."

"That's not true Chibs, Fiona is smart and strong, I bet she could beat me up." Juice looked at the other man to find that he didn't seem calmed at all by his words, in fact there almost seemed to be something darker and if possible even more pained in his face.

"It's already too late Juice, she's not answering the home phone or her cell phone and I can't reach Kerri either."

Juice paused trying to think of something else to say in comfort. "What if it's just a coincidence?" his tone of voice showed that even he didn't believe what he was trying to say. When Chibs continued to glare at him with the same saddened and pained look he added "I can call Trinity and get her to check on them so you at least know what happened. Rat Boy can take you back to your house to rest, I'll explain everything to Jax and I'm sure he'll understand."

Chibs shook his head, "Jax hates me...didn't you hear, I apparently schemed with that bastard to keep him alive."

Juice stepped back and looked at his friend as if he couldn't believe what he was saying. "But why would you do that?"

Despite his continued grief, Chibs' expression changed to a narrow-eyed look disbelief at the other man's ignorance.

Juice immediately read his face, "Jax is paranoid, you'd never do that. It doesn't even make sense that you would do that. Why would Jax think that it would make sense?"

"Juice..." the older man snapped, not in the mood to hear his friend's ramblings.

Trying to return to a serious comforting tone, Juice stopped his rambling adding "I'll drive you home and then I'll call Trinity and ask her to check in on them. Jax can find out later, he's not important right now."


	7. Chapter 7

It wasn't very often that Fiona Larkin asked things of the IRA kings or used the fact that despite gender relations, her father would give her almost anything remotely shady that she asked, but this time it had become necessary in her mind to reap the full benefits of what her connections would allow her to obtain. From the moment she'd hung up the phone with her husband the previous day, she'd been sure that he was too devoted to the chase and would easily allow himself to end up in a wooden box if it meant that he also took his prey down with him. The only way to stop him seemed to be to reign him in so he'd go into the chase with a level head and at least come out alive, but from another continent that would be near impossible to do. Still, with Jimmy O'Phelan on the lose it would never be safe to travel to Charming, California under her real name.

That was why three generations of Larkins were gathered in the study of the eldest family member, cell phones turned off and warm slightly alcoholic beverages served among them. However, the meeting wasn't one of catching up and small talk.

William Larkin had been surprised when his daughter had requested a meeting of the more professional nature, but he hadn't bothered to question her unknown interests too much. His daughter had always been too headstrong to be dissuaded from many of her plots and it was always better that she obtained whatever she wanted from him rather than some untrustworthy source. Still, he found it a bit unexpected when she had immediately slid a fat envelope across the table after the drinks were served.

"We need passports."

William looked at his daughter curiously "I wouldn't think you'd be so careless as to misplace the ones you already had."

Fiona elaborated "Fake passports...under assumed identities." before William could ask another question she added "and we need this published in the paper." she slid another sheet of paper across the table.

Taking the paper her father raised an eyebrow as he read it "Why are you suddenly trying to disappear, Daughter? Is it necessary to drag your offspring into your plan as well?"

Sensing the disdain in her grandfather's voice, Kerrianne spoke for the first time since entering the room. "Ma didn't force me to do anything."

Suddenly it seemed to hit William exactly why his daughter and granddaughter wanted the fake passports. "This is about O'Phelan isn't it?"

"About avoiding him." Fiona countered.

"He's changed you know."

"I don't believe that for one second."

"Why is that?" William asked regarding his daughter.

"That man could never change his stripes, he's already slaughtered two of SAMCRO's prospects."

"Is this true? Galen O'Shay said he'd be laying low."

"Galen O'Shay is hardly a much better man." Fiona snorted.

"And what exactly do you think you can do to change everything that you couldn't do from Belfast?"

The cellphone sitting on the coffee table began playing classical music. Normally the club members made fun of Chibs for making his ringtone for his wife one of Vivaldi's four seasons, but this time Juice just looked at his friend. "Are you going to answer that?" after Chibs remained silent, Juice hesitantly reached for the phone expecting the older biker to slap his hand away.

Instead, Chibs looked dead-eyed as if he felt the phone call would confirm what he'd already suspected.

Although Juice felt that with the lack of optimism his friend seemed to feel he had no reason to feel anymore himself he tried to put on a show of pretending to be calm. "Hello?"

"Juice? Why are you answering Filip's phone?" came Fiona's confused and slightly worried response from the other end of the line.

"He was in the bathroom...I can definitely give him the phone now though." Juice turned to Chibs holding the phone out while half covering the device with his hand "It's Fiona, she's alive."

Chibs took the phone from his hand hesitantly "Fi?"

"Why wouldn't I be alive? Is something bothering you? You called both mine and Kerri's phones and left a message on our home phone."

Pausing and deciding he wanted slightly more privacy to talk Chibs gestured to Juice who got up off the couch "I'll get a couple more beers out of the fridge."

Now that he was alone in the room he returned to the conversation at hand "Jimmy blew up the clubhouse."

At the other end, Fiona gasped audibly "Was anybody hurt? Are you hurt? Is Juice hurt?"

"The clubhouse was able to be evacuated before it blew, but he left our wedding photo in the rubble on purpose." as Chibs spoke he picked the tattered photograph up off the coffee table, where it had sat since his arrival home only a half-an-hour earlier, as if he was trying to show the damage that had been caused to it.

"He hasn't gotten to me or Kerri, Filip if that's what you were worried about. My father wanted to meet with us to discuss what's going on and we both turned our phones off." it was a white lie as she had omitted that part where she confessed to having scheduled the visit and trying to obtain the fake passports to travel to Charming, but something in his tone of voice told her that he'd never approve of what she had planned. Chibs clearly felt his family could only be safe in some foreign part of the world, but he still needed to be saved from his own mind and despite how good of a friend Juice seemed to be it was obvious that he didn't know Filip's mind or insecurities like she did.


	8. Chapter 8

"Where are Chibs and Juice?!" Jax asked as he stormed through the ruins of the clubhouse.

His tone was so loud and forceful that Ratboy almost jumped. "They left about an hour ago." the prospect answered tentatively.

"They're supposed to be here...they knew about the meeting." Jax seemed disgusted by his fellow club members ignorance and disregard for those around them.

"Chibs got spooked..." Ratboy started to say then stopped himself not wanting to be accused of insubordination.

"I don't care how spooked he is, he failed to kill Jimmy, he needs to feel some guilt, but if he wants to stay in the club he also needs to learn that he can't take off whenever he feels spooked."

By now the rest of the men in the ruins were eyeing Jax curiously. Although his club was usually behind him, none of the other members believed that Chibs had purposely failed to kill Jimmy O'Phelan.

Tig stepped in between the two men "Hey, boss there's no reason to kick anybody out of the club. I'll take Rat with me and go find Juice and Chibs."

After a pause, Jax nodded "Okay, but make sure Chibs understands that this can't happen again."

When he thought they were out of earshot of Jax, Ratboy turned to Tig. " Why is Jax so sure that Chibs did something against the club?"

"Because, I should be able to dig up O'Phelan's corpse and rape his dead asshole, but because he's alive I'm going to have to do a raincheck on that."

" Sometimes you're really weird. " Ratboy mumbled turning away from Tig.

" You're just going to have to get used to it kid " Tig responded. " What did Chibs see in the rubble that spooked him? "

" There was a photo of him and his wife on their wedding day. It was all burnt up and I think he assumed that O'Phelan guy placed it there as a warning that he'd already gotten to her and had her killed. "

" Jesus " Tig mumbled. " Juice probably took him back to his place. He's not going to be happy about having to be called back to the clubhouse. "

" Jax seems to be on a rampage lately. "

After the last comment from Ratboy, the two men rode their motorcycles in silence for several minutes. When they pulled up outside of the Scotsman's house, Tig could see the tow truck with the Teller-Morrow logo written on the side of it. Chibs had likely been too distraught to ride his bike, and Juice had wanted to make sure his friend was okay.

Tig knocked on the door, " Hey lazy bones, Jax wants both of you back at the clubhouse. "

Juice answered the door" I'm really sorry we took off like that. Chibs just had some shit come up and I wanted to make sure he was okay with everything that has happened lately. "

Tig nodded " Get out of here and now. "

As soon as Juice was out the door, Chibs came up behind him, stuffing his cell phone into his pants pocket as he walked. Even though he no longer seemed to be crying, from his red eyes it was obvious that it hadn't been long since he stopped.

Tig stopped him halfway out the door " hey, what happened? "

" Jimmy was just trying to keep me from staying on my game and I fell for it. I thought he'd already gotten to Fi and Kerri and I couldn't think straight, I just kept picturing their bodies lying in a puddle of blood in the flat. When Fiona actually returned my call I was so nervous and so sure that it was going to be one of his henchmen that Juice actually had to answer the phone for me. I can't keep letting him get in my head like that anymore. " Chibs seemed to be almost shaking as he spoke.

Tig patted him on the back " It's okay, you don't have to explain everything to me, but Jax really does want you back at the clubhouse. He practically wanted me to bring him your head on a platter. "

" He doesn't really trust me anymore since my old friend came back."

Tig nodded. "Let's get you both back to TM so Jax can't tear us all apart."

Jax was standing outside waiting for the other club members when the truck followed by the motorcycles pulled into the lot.

"The longer we stand here, the more time Jimmy O'Phelan has to gain the upper hand on us."

Trying to hide how shaken he'd been only hours earlier, Chibs grimly added: "saddle up brothers."

The ride north to where Bobby was staying was silent. None of the men wanted to talk about the obvious tension, and each was caught in their silent reflection and the road.

As soon as the men stepped off their bikes Bobby walked over to greet them. "I heard about the Irish blowing up the clubhouse."

"Is that all you heard?" Jax asked.

"Is there more to the story brother?"

"Oh yeah, way more." Jax turned to glance at Chibs as he spoke as if his mere presence had attracted an evil spirit that the club needed to be cleansed of.

Bobby followed Jax's gaze curiously unsure of what to think of the sudden friction between his fellow club members. "You can tell us around the table," he responded deciding to usher the men inside.

Minutes later all of the Redwood charter along with Bobby and a few other nomads were gathered around the large table with Jax at the head of it. Taking a deep breath the young president spoke.

"When I lost my best friend a month ago I thought I had reason to form a new vision, I had plans to take this club out of violence and into a more legal industry." he paused glancing around the table for added effect before speaking again "but then, two days ago when we met with Galen O'Shay to try and end the violence and the guns, a man I thought died long before Opie did, at the hands of one of our brothers, was waiting with him. That man was Jimmy O'Phelan."

Bobby cut him off "you're shitting me."

"He's not lying brother." Chibs responded "I saw him with my own two eyes, back from the dead. Face slashed open and healed over like I'd left him." He made a sweeping motion across his own scars as he spoke.

Jax glared at Chibs for a moment before he continued speaking. "So far he's had the element of surprise on his side and he's been two steps ahead of us. He was on the lot himself planting the bomb that blew up our clubhouse and Unser and a croweater were the only people who saw him there. He's already killed Phil and V-Lin and there's no reason to think he's going to stop there. We need to thicken our numbers, we need you back."

Bobby seemed to consider things for a moment before he looked around the table at the other nomads. Without speaking he got up from the table.

Jax sighed, he was sure that Bobby had barely believed a word any of them were saying and was trying to think of a polite way to kick them all out of the clubhouse. Instead, the short biker returned with a large stack of papers and set them down in front of Jax on the table.

"What are these?"

"Transfer papers."

Jax felt a lump begin to form in his throat "Look, I know you probably still hate me and think going full nomad is the right solution, but the truth is Jimmy's going to wipe us out if we don't strengthen our numbers and we need your help to do that."

"I know," Bobby pushed the stack closer to Jax "the papers aren't for me, they're for Quinn, West and Montez" he pointed at three of the nomads sitting at the table with them.

"You were recruiting?" Jax asked incredulously.

"You didn't think I actually wanted to leave the club did you?"


	9. Chapter 9

"You were supposed to blow up SAMCRO's clubhouse!" Galen raged over the phone.

Jimmy tried to stifle his anger at the older IRA member, he knew full well that he had failed to kill even one club member in the spectacular explosion and this was why Galen O'Shay was angry but the other man was irritating and he had no patience for his childish anger. "I did blow up the clubhouse. Just like you asked. Even wore the bloody delivery man suit." he responded snidely.

"Somebody tipped off the club before the explosion," Galen stated irritably. There seemed to be something almost accusing in his voice although what he was suggesting was beyond illogical and senseless.

"Why would I try to help The Sons?" Jimmy's cheeks puffed out briefly in rage, but the gesture was clearly lost through the phone.

"Maybe you wanted a chance to kill Filip face to face," Galen responded.

The prospect of still being able to watch the life drain from Filip Telford was something that Jimmy would indeed now look forward too, but he didn't want Galen to believe he'd even have a reason to botch the explosion. He had truly been prepared to murder the whole club and hoped he would get the chance to carry this out, but right now he needed to make sure he stayed alive and the best way to do this was to remind Galen that he was on his side.

"I'm not that man anymore" Jimmy lied.

"Good, because I need you to set up a meeting with Jackson Teller."

As soon as Galen hung up, Jimmy angrily threw his phone across the room. With Malone held in the Sons clutches already the last thing he needed to do was practically offer himself to the club.

xxx

By the time the meeting was set up, the Sons had found an ice cream shop in downtown Charming that they had bought. Jax wanted to meet Jimmy in a place where he felt safe so, with one of Galen's men in tow, the IRA terrorist had agreed to meet them in the shop.

As soon as Jimmy entered the shop, Jax glared at him "Why don't you take a seat in that booth. Your guy can have a chat with Tig. Leave the newspaper with him."

Jimmy snorted, sliding into the booth "Filip is going to want to read the latest headline."

Already sitting across the booth from him next to where Jax slid in, Chibs glowered at him. Before he could respond, a pretty blonde walked past the table. Jax and Chibs ignored her, but Jimmy watched her as she walked.

Catching what he was doing Jax snapped "Do not stare at my ex-wife!"

"Your ex-wife?" Jimmy asked incredulously.

Jax tried to turn him back to the reason for the meeting "You killed two of our prospects."

Coldly Jimmy met his eyes "I'll take you out one by one leave no mistake." he paused to turn to Chibs "and I'll leave you the last person standing. So you have to live with the agony of outliving everyone before I kill you. You've already outlived your wife and daughter."

"You bastard!" Chibs spoke for the first time since the meeting had begun.

Jimmy smiled and slid the newspaper onto the table. "So sorry for your loss."

Chibs flipped the paper over warily. The headline at the top of the page read "Fatal Single Car Crash Claims Two Lives".

"What did you do to them?!" Chibs growled reaching across the table to grasp Jimmy's collar.

"Nothing." Jimmy laughed "Bitch always was a crazy driver, I knew someday it would get her killed."

Unable to keep his composure after the other man's laugh, almost automatically the fist of the hand that wasn't clutching Jimmy's collar flew across the table prepared to make contact with his face. Pulling ever so slightly at the other hand, Jimmy dodged quickly out of the way causing Chibs' fist to hit the wooden back of the booth instead.

Jimmy continued to laugh as Chibs hissed softly in pain dropping his collar "I'll gut you like a dead deer." Chibs growled.

At this, the man who had arrived with Jimmy tried to break away from Tig to come over and defend his senior IRA member.

Jimmy waved him off. "It's fine." deciding to get up from the booth he added, "we're done here."

xxx

Tara was in a meeting with Ally Lowen and Margaret Murphy when her cellphone went off. Excusing herself, Tara immediately left the room. She pulled the phone out of her pocket briefly worrying that Wendy had broken and revealed her arrangements to leave Charming with Abel and Thomas. Gemma's name appeared on the screen, and this did nothing to ease her worries.

"Hello?" she hoped her tone sounded even and didn't betray anything.

"Where are you Doc?" Gemma asked at the other end, she sounded nervous, which seemed extremely odd to Tara.

"I had to cover a shift today. I'm at the hospital," she answered hoping the half lie would pacify the older woman.

"Well can you leave the hospital?"

"Why? What is it?"

"Chibs broke his hand punching a booth at the ice cream shop. He doesn't want to come to the hospital, but I convinced him to let you have a look."

"Why did Chibs punch one of the booths?" Tara asked, her wariness replaced with confusion.

"He was trying to hit Jimmy O'Phelan's face and missed." Tara thought Gemma was about to end the call when the older woman added something else, "Listen, he's not gonna be in a good state when you show up. Fiona Larkin was in a car crash with their daughter...neither of them made it out alive. He's not just in physical pain so be gentle with him."

Tara was shocked by what Gemma had said. She'd only met the Irish woman once, but somehow she'd never expected that the woman Gemma feared would be taken out by something as mundane as a single car crash. As for Chibs, she knew the blow couldn't have come at a worse time in the older biker's life.

"I'll be there as soon as possible."

By now Margaret Murphy had come out of the room and was standing behind her.

"There's an emergency with the club, I need to leave now."

Margaret nodded sympathetically. "I can watch Abel and Thomas for you."

Tara briefly considered the other woman's offer, "Thank you, but it's late, I'll drop them off with Lyla on the way to the shop."

xxx

Half an hour later after making sure her sons were safe with Lyla, Tara arrived at the ice cream shop.

"He's in the booth in the back." Gemma pointed towards the booth where Chibs was sitting with Juice, the older man looked utterly broken, stopping with his healthy hand to frequently take sips from a glass of whiskey in front of him. The bottle sat nearby on the table. As she approached, Juice stood up to meet her, but Chibs' eyes remained downcast.

"He's kind of in a bad way," Juice whispered glancing at the other man.

"Gemma told me already. It's understandable that he wouldn't handle it well."

"Look Doc, I might be the drunk widower with the broken hand but I can tell when I'm being talked about."

Both Juice and Tara turned back to Chibs apologetically.

"Let me look at your hand," Tara instructed sliding into the booth where Juice had sat. Then turning to Juice she added, "He needs more ice to keep the swelling down."

After Juice rushed away Tara slowly began to unwrap the bandage on Chibs hand. "It doesn't look as bad as Gemma described. We should do some x-rays, but it might not be broken."

"No x-rays," Chibs responded gruffly.

"Are you sure. It might help figure out if it's actually broken or only fractured."

"I said no x-rays! You already know I don't have health insurance." he seemed to become extremely angry before deflating "I'm sorry, Doc."

"You've been through a lot today Chibs. You have no reason to apologize to me."

Tara gently probed his hand trying to gauge exactly what felt swollen and the biker growled "Jesus Christ."

"It doesn't feel broken, just badly bruised," Tara responded.

At the front of the shop, the ringing of the bell signaled the opening of the door.

Tara ignored the noise, assuming it was a club member or Unser arriving.

However, at the front Gemma spoke "We're closed sweetheart..." there was a pause then the older woman's tone of voice changed "Jesus Christ...you're not supposed to be here."

At the fear in the older woman's voice, Tara couldn't help but turn around ignoring Chibs for a second.

At the counter, a few feet away Ratboy added loud enough for the entire shop to hear "That can't be who I think it is."

Behind her, Chibs began drunkenly doing the Hail Mary.


	10. Chapter 10

"The world does not revolve around your rules Gemma." the woman in doorway spoke with a clear tone in her voice.

Gemma looked huffy for a few seconds before she added: "You're dead...that's why you're not supposed to be here."

"You saw the fake article?" Fiona asked arching an eyebrow.

Gemma nodded "We all did," then trying to add venom to her voice to hide the fear Fiona had instilled in her she added "You don't belong here, sweetheart. Your newspaper article is the reason Chibs is sitting back in a corner destroying his liver."

Fiona glanced back at her husband concerned, before turning back to Gemma trying to figure out how to respond to the older woman's sudden hostility. She didn't want to fight in front of her daughter or her husband, but Gemma seemed to act as if she'd committed a horrible crime by showing up in Charming. "We have every right to be here."

Gemma huffed and opened her mouth to say something else only to be stopped by Tara cutting in, placing her body in between the counter and Fiona. Both women were surprised by the interjection, but there was some sort of silent agreement that they wouldn't fight. Gemma didn't want to look fearful and Fiona was downright tired from jet lag.

Once the situation was pacified, Tara turned to Fiona and Kerrianne, unsure if the older woman would even remember her, they'd never met outside of the hospital so it seemed unlikely the other woman would recognize her as anyone other than the doctor that had tended to Chibs in the hospital a couple of years earlier. "I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Tara."

Fiona surprised her "you're Jax's old lady," noticing the younger woman's expression she added, "Filip has mentioned you before."

Although she was curious what Chibs had mentioned about her, Tara pushed it aside "Do either of you want something to drink?"

Kerrianne shook her head no, but Fiona sighed "Tea would be nice if you have any."

"I'll see to make a cup of tea." When Chuckie's comment was met with only blank stares he added: "I'll boil the kettle right away."

"Why don't we sit down?" Tara motioned to the nearest booth.

Fiona immediately sat down, but Kerrianne remained standing, looking towards the back of the shop where her father was now getting up from the booth he'd been sitting in. She could tell by his seeming lack of coordination that he must be drunk, but unlike when she'd encountered Jimmy O'Phelan drunk, she didn't feel scared. Uncomfortable maybe, but she trusted that her father had no plans to hurt her.

Reaching her, Chibs wrapped his daughter in a drunken hug "Kerri."

Kerrianne returned her father's hug, pleased to be around him even while he was in such a state "Da."

Pulling back from her, Chibs looked at his daughter, his brow creasing in confusion "you're not a zombie are you?"

Kerrianne paused, taken aback by her father's question and turned to her mother, searching for an answer. "Ma?"

Fiona stood up from her seat, looking at her husband. "The article was fake Filip. It was made to fool Jimmy." pausing she glanced at his hand "What did you do to your hand?"

Chibs sighed, "Jimmy insulted you Fi, I had to defend your good name."

Fiona pursed her lips, planning to respond both in comfort to her husband and out of morbid curiosity to probe how badly Jimmy O'Phelan had been hurt. Part of her wanted him to be stuck nursing face wounds as he'd always been rather vain and it would be great poetic justice, but another part of her was worried that in rage the other man would again come after her sweet boy.

It was as if Gemma read the mix of emotions on her face because the older woman immediately interjected "he missed O'Phelan completely and punched that booth Bobby and Tig are sitting in instead."

Chibs glared at Gemma for a second but seemed unwilling to contest what she had said. Even if he'd wanted to fight, it seemed as if he was simply too drunk and too tired to do so.

Fiona nodded sympathetically, stepping forward to place an arm around her husband, leading him into the booth where Tara was still sitting. Chibs followed her lead easily almost like a Labrador Retriever following its master, it would have almost been comical, but every single person watching could feel the trust the normally tough biker was putting into his actions and laughing or poking fun was the last thing on anyone's minds.

"I can get Chuckie to make him a cup of coffee," Tara suggested.

Chibs started to huff in disagreement with the suggestion, however seeing the look in his wife's eyes he changed his mind and responded gruffly, rubbing the back of his neck with his good hand"I guess I could use that."

At that moment Bobby spoke from the booth behind them, "We're going to have to find a place for you two to stay. Jimmy has a guy sitting on Chibs house, so it's not safe there."

The front of the shop was filled with silence briefly as Chuckie bought out the tea and coffee and placed them in front of their respective owners, before adding "What about Diosa?"

"Chuckie, we can't put Chibs' wife and daughter up with the whores!" Tig groaned.

"Nero wouldn't let anything happen to them," Gemma responded before turning to Fiona, "but it's probably not classy enough for your Catholic morals sweetheart."

"Isn't there a hotel where they'd be safe?" Tara interjected.

Although she wasn't sure how her daughter felt about the potential accommodations, Fiona saw no problems with staying in a brothel. In her life, she'd been forced to do some things that might seem despicable to ensure the survival of her family, and she couldn't find any reason to judge the women who felt the only way to make their living was to pleasure men. Still, she wanted her husband's opinion on the suggestion even though there was a chance it would change once he was sober. "Filip, would you feel safe about us staying at Diosa?"

Chibs thought for a second, sipping his coffee before responding. "It's a safe place with warm beds...but only if that's what Kerrianne wants."

"I'm fine with it if Ma's fine with it," Kerrianne responded.

Fiona nodded, "I think Diosa would be a good place for us. Even if Jimmy finds out the article is fake he's not going to search for us there. He thinks I'm an old prude."


	11. Chapter 11

As far as first impressions went, Nero Padilla hadn't been given very much to go on about Fiona Larkin. The previous evening she had been ushered into one of the rooms he'd had Lyla clear at Gemma's instruction and he'd only glimpsed the back of a curly haired woman's head as she tried to coerce her husband to join her. It had been obvious that Chibs had been drunk and as a result all too willing to go along with her, which had been something that almost made Nero chuckle. However, the next morning Nero got his first chance to interact with her as she walked out of the room looking fresh and awake, clad in blue jeans and a button shirt decorated with a cheerful floral pattern.

"Where's Chibs?" Nero asked, surprised to see the Irish woman up so early with no indication of her husband anywhere to be seen.

Normally Fiona refused to be completely direct with someone she'd just met, but everything Filip had told her about this man indicated that he was a friend and not a foe. Still, knowing that he was involved with Gemma made her wary of how candid she should be with him.

Nero seemed to take something from her extended silence and immediately put up his hands in an attempt at trying to show he meant no harm. "Hey, just asking...I mean I'm sure you're not joined at the hip, but he's usually hanging around pretty early, and he looked rough last night."

Deciding that Nero was being genuine, Fiona sighed "Didn't bother to wake him. He probably hasn't gotten much sleep since Jimmy O'Phelan returned. He deserves to be allowed to rest."

Nero nodded, "What about your girl? What's her name, Sherry? When will she be up?"

Fiona chuckled at Nero's misnaming "Kerrianne shouldn't be up before ten."

Realizing he hadn't yet offered her anything to drink or eat, Nero paused "Can I get you anything? Coffee or tea? There's bagels in the kitchen. I could even have one of the girls do a fast food run if you'd prefer that." he realized he was almost being an over gracious host now, but he didn't want her to be uncomfortable as it was unlikely that she'd be able to safely leave the brothel very often.

"I'll just have a cup of coffee." when Nero got up to retrieve the cup for her she added, "I can get it myself."

"The pot's in the other room," even after Nero had pointed her in the right direction he got up to follow her, curious to continue the conversation. "Mind if I ask why you're in Charming?"

Fiona froze and turned around to face Nero shocked at the question. It had seemed like their conversation had started off well, but now she wondered if he was just looking for something to take back to Gemma. The look on his face when she turned showed he seemed to still be genuinely curious, and even if he wasn't, she had no horrible ulterior motives that he could take back to Gemma. "Chibs needs a compass to guide him."

"No offense, but he's a grown man. I don't know much about your relationship, but is he really in need of a babysitter?" Nero asked a bit surprised.

Fiona decided to elaborate "My Filip has always felt the need to be a protector. He's so used to putting others needs before his own and playing the hero that he forgets to watch for his own safety. It's what makes him so loyal to the club, but it's a tragic flaw. I'm here to remind him that he has good reason to keep from getting killed in the process of going after Jimmy O'Phelan."

"Jimmy O'Phelan really gets to him, huh?" Nero asked.

Fiona bristled noticeably "You don't know half of our past with Jimmy O."

Nero set down his own coffee on the counter, "So why don't you tell me. I'd like to think I'm a good listener."

xxx

Chibs was all too used to waking up in bed alone, but this morning it felt all wrong. He remembered little bits and pieces from the previous night, and he knew that his wife and daughter had appeared in Charming, but seeing the empty bed made him wonder if the alcohol had made him hallucinate everything. However, the pillow next to him was tousled and compressed and it smelled like Fiona's perfume. This was at least proof that he hadn't hallucinated everything. Still, there was nothing to be desired about waking up alone and hungover in his underwear, laying in the bed of a brothel.

There was a soft knock at the door to the room and Chibs groaned. "This room is occupied."

Opening the door, Lyla peered around the frame holding a tray with a cup of coffee and a bottle of Excedrin on it"Fiona wanted me to make sure you took something for your hangover." Without waiting for him to respond she crossed the room and set the tray on the bedside table. "Juice is going to come by in about an hour with a fresh change of clothes. Let me know if you need anything else."

It wasn't until Lyla was halfway across the room that Chibs thought of what he wanted "Get Fiona"

The blonde nodded, "I'll tell her you want to talk."

It couldn't have been more than five minutes after Lyla left that the door opened again and Fiona entered closing the door behind her. "I thought you might want to sleep in" she offered.

Chibs nodded "What are you doing in Charming Fi? It's not safe here for you."

Fiona snorted "It's not safe anywhere lovely."

"I don't want my girls in harm's way." Chibs persisted "What do you think is going to happen when Jimmy finds out about the article? You and Kerri don't need to be involved in this. Jimmy should be part of your past. This is on my hands Fi, not yours."

By the way her nostrils flared, Chibs could immediately tell he'd unleashed some sort of storm, but he was hardly prepared for the angry torrent "On your hands?! When I found out Jimmy had tricked me and banished you I stayed with him...not because I wanted to be with him, but because I thought the only way to keep him from sending someone to murder you was to keep him satisfied...later, when our daughter reached puberty I let Jimmy pass me around to his friends like a carton of cigarettes so that Kerrianne would never know what it felt like to have a man force himself upon her. You like to think that everything is about what Jimmy's done to you and to the club, but I had to live with him for years. This is as much my fight as it is yours, Filip!"

By the time she was finished speaking, Fiona's entire body was shaking as the anger dissipated seemingly into the air around her. Chibs didn't know what to say in response to her torrent. He'd known that it would have been foolish to assume that she hadn't slept with Jimmy O'Phelan, but somewhere in the back of his mind, he'd convinced himself that she'd been a willing participant and it had been no different than the women he'd picked up over the years. Another part of him was impressed by the sheer strength and willpower of the woman standing before him. He'd always known that Fiona was the stronger one in their relationship, but somehow he realized he'd still managed to underestimate everything about her.

Steeling himself he said the first thing that came to his mind, "I love you Fi, so fucking much."


	12. Chapter 12

Even after having a chance to sleep on her feelings Gemma Teller was still uneasy about Charming's newest visitors. She'd never publicly admit this much to anyone other than Tara, who already knew, but there had always been something about Fiona Larkin that just didn't feel right. The woman didn't seem to play by the rules of Charming; by Gemma's rules and always seemed to be joined with the appearances of Jimmy O'Phelan in some fashion or another as if she were a hungry vulture drawn in by the carnage. Of course, pride was a factor in Gemma's feelings as well. Other women almost never looked her in the eye without a measure of fear and discomfort, yet Fiona didn't treat her like a leader or someone befitting of higher status. This only added to the general unease that she gave off. Still, the last thing Gemma wanted to give off was the scent of fear, instead, she found herself trying to appear overly confident.

"The logic behind the fake article was brilliant," Tara commented as she scrubbed gravy off of a dirty breakfast plate.

"Don't strain your brain too hard over it Doc. It's probably a smoke screen."

Tara turned to look at Gemma over her shoulder, "What makes you say that?"

"A week and a half after O'Phelan suddenly rises from the grave she's ready to play loyal wife? I don't buy it. She's still in bed with Jimmy."

"She seemed concerned for Chibs last night." Tara mused.

"Look, I know you come from a world where you want to trust everybody, but trust is something that has to be earned where I come from sweetheart and she's done nothing to deserve our trust."

Tara mulled over Gemma's statement for a few seconds, briefly wondering why the older woman had developed so much hostility towards Chibs' wife. As far as she knew, the other woman had done nothing that should offend Gemma's sensibilities, yet she acted as if Fiona Larkin had committed some great crime by simply existing. Part of her wondered if race came into play with Gemma's feelings and if it was hard for her to imagine a black woman actually not only achieving the status as a biker's old lady but being treated like the man's equal as well. Normally she would have kept such queries to herself, but she couldn't let the conversation die just yet. "Are you a racist, Gemma?"

Gemma bristled at Tara's comment "Look, I don't care what color pussy Chibs chooses to stick his dick in, but that woman's soul is far darker than the color of her skin." immediately trying to change the subject she added "Where's Wendy? I sent her to the store an hour ago to pick up a few items. It shouldn't have taken her so long to get them."

xxx

It was obvious that Jax's ex-wife was a junkie and possibly a whore, and in a way, this was part of her appeal to Jimmy. Normally he chose women who took better care of their body and appearance, but a junkie was more likely to freely give out any information she might have about the club while in a drugged state and if he were to stay afoot in Charming he needed as much of an inside look into SAMCRO as he could get. That was why he was in the aisles of the Charming grocery store, in the most casual clothes he owned pretending to shop for groceries despite the fact that he only consumed organic vegetables and lean meats.

Jimmy watched the woman from an aisle over, preparing to "accidentally" bump into her. Absently he realized how suspicious it would look to have an empty basket lest the woman actually manage to figure out that his intentions were far from benign. At this moment he happened to be right next to the packaged fish. Malone loved the smoked oysters in tins and this annoyed Jimmy. The other man who was at best tolerable with decent smelling breath became completely unbearable whenever he got drunk and leaned in close to Jimmy's face to talk after eating his favorite fishy snack. Still, the offending item was the closest thing that it made sense to grab. Maybe if Malone wasn't killed by SAMCRO he could make him more pliant to his demands by pretending he'd learned to accept his tastes.

Grudgingly he placed two boxes of smoked oysters in his basket. He was trying to discreetly follow the woman and placed a handful of other items in his basket only vaguely registering what they were to gauge a price point. Finally came the point where he had to make his move or consider his morning wasted. Slowly he rounded the corner of the shelves pretending not to notice her standing in the aisle.

xxx

It took Wendy a few seconds to register anything as the figure bumped into her. It was the same man that had been at the ice cream shop the previous day meeting with SAMCRO. She couldn't remember his name, but she knew he hadn't seemed friendly with the club and she was initially wary by his presence. Her nerves were only slightly eased when he smiled at her. The scars on his face although very similar to the ones across Chibs' face combined with something in his eyes made him altogether unsettling. The thought to run and leave her groceries briefly crossed her mind, but something else told her to at least try to be polite.

The man continued his unsettling smile "I'm so sorry about that love, I didn't see you standing there."

She had been standing plainly in the middle of the aisle, so unless his mind had been elsewhere the statement seemed like it could have been a flat-out lie, but it didn't feel safe to call him out on it, and from the senseless assortment of items in his basket it seemed like maybe his mind had been elsewhere. "You're the man from the ice cream shop. I don't think I caught your name yesterday."

The man extended his hand towards her "I'm Jimmy O'Phelan."

Slowly Wendy shook the extended hand. "Wendy Case."

"You were Jax's old lady. I can't imagine why he'd leave someone so pretty."

Even with the compliment, Wendy wasn't sure if she should be willing to trust the man before her. "He doesn't seem to like you, why should I feel any differently?"

Something almost dangerous flashed across Jimmy's face for a few seconds, but he quickly righted it "my animosity with SAMCRO is purely business related not on a personal level."


	13. Chapter 13

Tara had decided to try to reschedule the meeting to make up for the time she'd lost the previous night due to Chibs' hand injury. However, there was also supposed to be a SAMCRO meeting that evening, and because it was a special one to discuss the newest situation the old ladies were expected to there as well so she was on a time crunch. This made her all the more irritated when Wendy showed up almost thirty minutes late with what could be best described as sex hair.

Crossing her arms over her chest Tara glared at Wendy "Where were you? I told Lowen you'd get here around the same time I did."

Wendy almost looked apologetic for a second, but then something flashed across her face and Tara knew she wasn't about to get an apology. "I had to take care of something."

"Like what? Sex with someone you just met?" Tara snorted. She knew it was probably wrong to chide the other woman on her sex life, but it was irritating that even though she'd know she was expected at the meeting she'd arrived late in favor of some unknown party whom she may or may not have met recently.

"Look, I'm not that late, and I honestly forgot about the meeting until after I'd slept with him." Wendy tried to remain casual.

"I get it, this meeting may not mean that much to you, but this is my life! My family!" Tara couldn't help but rage a little at Wendy's casual attitude to her lateness.

For a brief moment Wendy softened "look, it was a mistake that won't happen again. The guy was kind of a bastard anyway so I doubt I'll continue the relationship."

xxx

Most of the time the members of the Sons of Anarchy motorcycle club appeared to be stoic and unafraid of anything they encountered. However, the men gathered in the back room at Diosa all looked incredibly unnerved, quietly glancing at each other with most of them trying to measure their position in the room so they were on exactly the side they thought would be most safe. Jax had positioned himself at a true neutral between the glares of his mother and Fiona Larkin. Chibs was sitting on his wife's left side, holding her hand with his uninjured one. Although his nervousness was obvious to every person in the room, it was easy to assume that it had everything to do with the fight everyone assumed would break out and nothing to do with ulterior motives. He'd already discussed his plans with Fiona. At first, she'd argued that he should stay with the club, but something in her eyes told him that she was only trying to play devil's advocate to make sure he planned to stand by his choice. At that moment he knew that he had to stand by what he was insisting, he couldn't let her or Kerrianne down again by choosing the club. He knew he would also have an upper hand on Jimmy O'Phelan by listening to the one person who had been forced to deal with his wrath for years, the person who also happened to be the only one who could reign his own bouts of self-sacrificing gallantry in.

Having arrived late, Tara took the only seat left in the room which was to the right of the couch the couple was seated on. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Gemma glaring at her as if she'd chose the wrong side of the room, but she didn't believe in holding petty grudges and while she knew full well that Gemma could be dangerous, all she'd done was take a seat in a chair. It wasn't as if this one innocent move would turn Gemma completely against her.

Before Jax could start to speak, Chibs cleared his throat. When the entire room turned to the big biker, he let go of his wife's hand and slowly began removing his cut.

"What are you doing?" Jax asked warily eyeing him.

"Something I should have done the moment you accused me of working with that bastard O'Phelan." Chibs snarled taking out his pocket knife.

"You're crippling the club!" Jax leaned forward in his chair as he spoke as if he thought he could intimidate the older man into staying by threatening to get in his personal space.

Almost as if Jax's remark and body language had actually intimidated him, Chibs stopped his sloppy attempt at cutting the Vice President's patch off his cut. "I can't do this."

Jax sat back in the chair, his body relaxing, assuming he'd managed to get Chibs back on his side until the other man continued.

"I can't cut this bloody patch off with my injured hand!" , frustrated he passed the cut over to the only person he trusted to actually remove his patch. It was in a way another act of defiance to Jax Teller. As an unwritten club rule, it was universally frowned upon for the old ladies of SAMCRO club members to touch or remove their husband or boyfriend's patches from his cut.

However, the only person brave and foolish enough to try to come in between what was happening was Ratboy. "Let me do it for you." The prospect started to reach over Fiona's shoulder to grab the cut from her lap. Before he could complete his intended action, the woman grabbed his wrist in a strong almost bone breaking grip effectively stopping him in his tracks. At that moment the prospect was sure the bone was about to crack. Finally, Fiona released her grip and the prospect stumbled backwards clutching his wrist.

The rest of the room, other than Chibs, watched in silent shock. The stares, however, didn't bother Fiona and she continued cutting off the patch where her husband had left off removing it in record time and placing it on the table before her.

Turning back to Jax, Chibs reached over and pushed the patch towards the SAMCRO president "You need to give that patch to someone that you're not constantly accusing of working against you."


	14. Chapter 14

"You can't leave the club Chibs." Jax made one last attempt to change the other man's mind. "SAMCRO can't afford to lose any more members. You've seen first hand what Jimmy O'Phelan is doing to the club." he almost looked like a pleading child rather than a grown man, and all the notions of anger and betrayal he'd seemingly felt from his former VP appeared to be lost. The play of innocence usually worked. As a child and even as an adult it had more than once convinced Gemma Teller that her son could do no wrong, and there had even been times in the past it had worked on club members. However, the look was usually followed by false promises and Chibs knew this from past experience.

"I understand what O'Phelan's capable of far better than most of the people in this room do." Chibs snorted.

"Well then enlighten us," Jax responded angry that his attempt had failed to have any effect on the older man.

For a moment Chibs felt guilty that he was leaving SAMCRO in the dark, but his loyalties didn't lie with the club anymore and he wasn't sure if Jax's ego would allow him to accept that he was wrong both about his former VP and about how to best defeat their reborn nemesis. Still, there was a lingering guiltiness. Although he resented Jax, the other members of the club were still his friends and he worried that their lives were still at stake. However, they had to know the risk of being in the club and the club itself might be the target of Galen O'Shay's rage, but it wasn't Jimmy's focus.

"No."

"What do you mean no?" Jax asked.

"O'Phelan's an egotistical bastard who tends to fixate on a single target and I'm his white whale, not the Sons. Filthy Phil and V-Lin were an obstacle, not the target." Before Jax could think of a response Chibs stood from the couch, taking his wife's hand again as he did so. "Let's go love."

xxx

"Congratulations, you've finally manipulated your husband into leaving SAMCRO," Gemma's voice was dripping with disgust and anger as she approached the younger woman who was smoking a cigarette while leaning against the back wall of Diosa.

"Is that what you assume every time someone goes against what you want Gemma? That someone else manipulated them?" Fiona didn't want to agitate the other woman, but the accusations both that she was as manipulative as Gemma and that her husband was unable to make his decisions, were incredibly irritating to her. Still, she refused to make eye contact with the older woman as there was no reason to show that she'd done exactly what she wanted.

"Don't play innocent on me, sweetheart. I've seen the game you play. You always show up to cloud Chibs mind around the same time O'Phelan comes to town. You two formulated quite the plan." Gemma paused, and her next comment changed tone so quickly that it almost sounded like it came from someone who actually cared about others until the last part of her words ended in a biting insult. "Chibs is a good person and he doesn't need to die because his mind is clouded by your toxic pussy."

Trying to ignore what was obviously attempts to get under her skin, Fiona dropped her cigarette to the ground, stubbing it out with the toe of her boot. "I'd never do anything to hurt my husband." Instead of giving the other woman a chance to respond she pushed past her, still not making eye contact, hoping to get inside without further taunts.

As the other woman walked past, Gemma slyly stuck her own boot covered foot into her's path causing her to fall to the ground roughly. It was a childish act, but it felt good putting the undeserving object of her fear in a place where she could easily kill her if she so desired, felt good. However, kicking Fiona in the head wasn't something she desired to do at that moment and instead, Gemma left her to get back up on her own while she walked back inside.

xxx

Nighttime snuck up on Charming mere hours after the meeting at Diosa. Jimmy O'Phelan and the IRA had been suspiciously quiet over the past twenty-four hours, but this was only part of the reason Chibs remained awake, lying in a bed next to his sleeping wife, staring at a picture of a half-naked woman on the wall. Nero had promised him that the rooms closest to where his family was staying would not be used for prostitution. However, from the sounds coming from just a room over it was apparent that someone had not received the notice. Sex wasn't something that normally made him squeamish, but tonight all he wanted was to pound on the wall and scream for the couple to stop if only so he could hear himself think.

When there was finally a break in the whore's exaggerated moans he found himself able to get to the root of his worries. The moment Fiona had walked back into the brothel covered in dirt, with a bloody nose he'd known something was wrong. Fiona had claimed that she'd tripped while smoking her cigarette, apparently unused to her heels, however, he'd immediately read this as a lie. During his last visit to Ireland only a month earlier he'd watched her move so fluidly in a pair of three-inch heels that he'd almost thought she was gliding above the ground rather than walking. It was an obvious lie that he'd wanted to call her out on, especially after noting that moments earlier Gemma had walked in from the same direction looking a little too prideful, but Kerrianne was with him and he hadn't wanted to worry her. However, he was sure that even his sixteen-year-old daughter knew it was a lie and Gemma had done something to her mother.

Deep down, Chibs felt like if he'd chosen to stay with the club he would have been able to at least prevent the shame and humiliation from what Gemma had done to his wife. However, it was too late now to turn back, and Chibs was always a man of his word.

Across Charming, Tara laid in bed alone, also deep in troubling thoughts. Jax had been so angry over the loss of his VP that he had stormed away from Diosa on his bike. Tara had a feeling she knew exactly where he'd went, having heard accidentally from Happy that he had picked up a girlfriend in the two weeks she was behind bars. Along with everything else that had been going on, this only served as another reminder of why she had to get her sons out of Charming. She loved Jax and always would, but Abel and Thomas didn't deserve to have a father that came home irregularly smelling like strange women. However, seeing how angrily Jax had lashed out at a club member turning in his patch she could only assume what would happen if he found out his old lady was about to take his sons and leave Charming.

It didn't help that the one person who was supposed to care about the boys as much as she did, Abel's biological mother, had seemingly decided illicit encounters were more important than the safety of the boys. Although she still preferred to get out of Charming in a way that was completely legal, she was beginning to wonder if she needed a backup plan that wasn't completely so and an ally in it who wasn't a member of the Sons, but was someone close enough that she could still trust them with her sons life.


	15. Chapter 15

It would have been all too easy for Nero to kick his guests out of Diosa now that they were no longer affiliated with the club, but for some reason that Chibs might never understand, not only had the other man allowed him and his family to stay in the brothel, he'd even seemed almost more hospitable than he had the first morning and Chibs almost found himself waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Hey hombre, you've got a visitor," Nero peered around the doorway into the room.

At first, Chibs felt like this was indeed the other shoe dropping. He wasn't expecting any visitors and although he didn't think O'Phelan would have learned this quickly of his departure from SAMCRO or that he had his family alive at Diosa, he wondered if the other man was down the hall. This worried him as there were no exits in the room and his wife and daughter were sitting nearby and there was no need to put them in the same room with Jimmy.

Automatically he stood up, putting his body in between the door and his wife on the couch. Fiona, who was reading the paper immediately looked up from her reading but didn't bother to tell her husband to sit back down and went back to reading. She had her doubts that any threat was at the end of the hall, but she could tell that what Chibs was doing made him feel in control at least briefly and there was no reason to take it away from him.

Nero, however, didn't look so convinced that it was a normal reaction to the situation and after taking one look at the other man he added: "I'll tell the doc you don't want any visitors."

This left Chibs even more confused "Did you say Tara's here?"

"Yeah, she seems a little urgent to see you," Nero responded.

"What does she want?" Fiona asked, again looking up from the paper before setting it aside completely.

"She won't say," Nero admitted, "she just said she really needs to talk to Chibs."

Chibs was unsure if he wanted to talk with the doctor. He liked Tara, and even almost considered her like a little sister, but she was still Jax's old lady and he wondered if the president of SAMCRO had decided to use her as a way to try to win him back into the club. Finally, after a few seconds of thinking, he responded to Nero "Tell her I have no reason to talk to her."

"Okay Esse," Nero started to turn to leave when much to his and Chibs surprise, Fiona stopped him.

"Let me talk to her."

Surprised by her offer, Nero turned to glance at Chibs as if asking for his permission to let Fiona talk to Tara.

Instead of outright answering, Chibs just nodded before sitting back down allowing Fiona to stand up.

Nero immediately stepped aside to allow Fiona to walk past him into the hallway. "If you think that's best I'm not going to stop you."

xxx

Fiona found Tara sitting at the bar sipping a cup of coffee while various prostitutes milled about the room. Seemingly surprised to see her, the other woman got up from her seat "I need to talk with Chibs."

Immediately, Fiona gestured for her to sit back down "anything you can tell my husband, you can tell me."

When Tara remained quiet she added "If you're here to try to convince him to return to SAMCRO you're out of luck sweetheart. My husband stands by his convictions."

"Do you think I'm just Jax's messenger?!" Tara spat.

"Why do you want to talk to my husband?"

Finally realizing that she wasn't going to get out of the conversation at hand, Tara again got up from her seat. "I don't want to talk in here."

"Fine, then we'll talk outside." Soon the two women were standing in the same place that Fiona had talked with Gemma the previous evening. The dust was still marked with footprints, cigarette butts and the remnants of Gemma's sly immaturity. Almost instinctively, Fiona pulled a cigarette box out of her pocket and took one out before offering the box to the other woman.

Tara politely declined before beginning to speak. "I need Chibs' help."

"Filip has enough on his plate already with O'Phelan. He doesn't have the time or resources to help you." Hoping Tara would take the hint, Fiona walked several feet away before continuing to smoke her cigarette.

However, Tara wasn't ready to give up on what she wanted and prepared her next attempt at getting the other woman's attention. "Would you want your daughter to grow up to be an old lady?"

Stopping, Fiona turned back towards Tara, "Kerrianne will be free to choose what kind of life she wants to live."

"My sons will be forced to patch into SAMCRO as soon as they can ride a motorcycle. If I can get them out of Charming they have a chance to have a normal life like your daughter will."

Fiona's maternal instinct had been reached, but she tried to keep her poker face, choosing to let out a bitter indifferent sounding laugh before speaking. "You want to keep your sons away from monsters, yet you come directly to the man with possibly the most violent past of all the club members."

"You and I both know that's not all that Chibs is. He did something that Jax has proven multiple times he'd never do. He chose his family over the club...I don't believe I'm putting my blind trust and my sons' safety in the hands of a violent psychopath, I believe I'm trusting a man who did what he had to to keep his family safe." after a pause she added "if you refuse to help me I'll still find a way to get my sons out of Charming, but don't tell me that you wouldn't do the exact same thing to keep your family alive."


	16. Chapter 16

When the morning sun had risen over Charming, there had been four men in the small apartment. Now, as the sun beat down outside at it's highest point, although there were still four men inside the apartment, two of them were on plastic tarps on the floor, their bodies cold and stiff. One of the two remaining men in the apartment, Kellan O'Rourke was bent over the corpses, shirt off and meat cleaver in hand.

"Are you going to help me?" O'Rourke asked stopping to wipe his brow and glaring up at the other living man in the apartment. Although he'd seen the older man shoot two other IRA associates, in cold blood he felt that he was needed enough that he could be spiteful. Jimmy O'Phelan was sitting in the other room drinking a glass of red wine and wearing a suit that was so clean it looked like it belonged on a mannequin instead of a living human. Furthermore, he hadn't even bothered to remove Galen and Malone's bodies from the kitchen himself. Instead, he'd calmly finished his breakfast before leaving, likely to visit Jackson Teller's junkie ex-wife for activities that O'Rourke preferred not to picture. The moment he'd returned to the apartment he'd glanced over at O'Rourke's work before walking into the kitchen and pouring himself a glass of wine.

A loud snort came as the response from the other room followed by "I won't do your job for you."

O'Rourke gritted his teeth trying to hide how pissed off he was. Although it was true that he was the youngest person both living and deceased in the apartment he didn't appreciate having to clean up a mess that was caused by the older man's temper. "I'm not the one who killed a senior IRA official because he didn't like how I cooked the eggs!"

Although O'Rourke had only commented on what he thought he saw happen, his accusation hit exactly the wrong note with Jimmy. Although it was mostly the truth that Galen's death had came about as a result of an ill-placed comment, something about the tone of the younger man's seemed disrespectful and irritating to him.

O'Rourke jumped and instinctively held the cleaver in front of his face as he heard the wine glass shatter loudly against a kitchen wall. However, Jimmy remained in the other room. After several tense minutes of wondering if his life was still in danger, O'Rourke decided it was time to pose the most important question. "What do you want me to do with our dead associates?"

For a moment Jimmy was again quiet, and O'Rourke assumed he had either hit another button or wasn't deemed worthy of a true response. Finally, Jimmy spoke "just find a way to keep them from being discovered," after another pause he added "except for Galen O'Shay's head. I want you to personally deliver it to the doorstep of the Sons of Anarchy's favorite brothel."

"Why?" O'Rourke asked even though he expected another angry response.

Instead, Jimmy was calm and clear in his next words. "It's a housewarming present for my wife."

xxx

Although it had been less than twenty-four hours since SAMCRO had lost its VP, the atmosphere had already become incredibly tense. In the past year alone, SAMCRO had lost multiple members. However, the men had either, like Opie, been taken by Mister Mayhem himself or, like Clay, been ousted from the club for bitter betrayals. Almost all of the men of the club had fathered a child at some point, but there was a difference between simply impregnating a woman and actually caring for the offspring and the only two men who felt they could fully understand Chibs' choice were self-proclaimed family man Quinn and Tig who had only months earlier watched his own daughter burn to death and even they were too unsure to speak out against Jax. Jax himself should have been someone that also understood the choice, but instead, he took it as if it had been a direct and personal betrayal against him.

Now, sitting at the head of the table above the ice cream shop, Jax addressed the rest of the club. "Chibs is a coward. He chose to abandon his brothers when the club was in most need of its members," for a moment he paused to look around the table and take in the reactions of the gathered men as if waiting for someone to chime in with a dissenting opinion. When he was satisfied that his words had hit their mark he decided to continue. "So far, Jimmy O'Phelan and Galen O'Shay have laid low. Chibs claimed Jimmy O'Phelan won't be interested in the club anymore, but for all we know O'Phelan could have put those exact words into his mouth to fool us."

At the last sentence, Tig immediately cut into his words "C'mon, you can't seriously believe that Chibs is working with him. They'd sooner kill each other than work together against SAMCRO."

Taking Tig's lead, Happy chimed in "it would be a massacre." Although he looked almost too pleased with being able to say the word massacre, his words were completely serious.

Jax glared at each man in turn before responding "Chibs's loyalties have always been with the Irish and they always will be. It was only a matter of time before what happened last night occurred. If Nero wants to allow him to continue to stay at Diosa, I'm not sure if I can stop him. However, when the Sons find out something about what Galen or Jimmy are up to, he will not find out what we know. The last thing we need is someone feeding information back to the IRA."


	17. Chapter 17

"Is it okay if I ask what was in that duffel bag...the one your friend bought by earlier?" Chibs turned to look at the girl, both surprised by her openly speaking to him and by the words themselves. Although he recognized her, he couldn't remember her name and had never interacted with her before.

At first, he assumed that Juice for some reason had bought by something, but it didn't make sense that the girl wouldn't know exactly who he was, as he was sure he'd seen her go into a back room with him at least once. Still, he had to ask "did Juice bring it by?"

"No, Irish guy...didn't say much except that your wife had forgotten it and it was important. He insisted on putting it in your room." after a pause she added, "there was a red stain on the bag, like blood."

Part of Chibs was simply irritated that the girl had actually allowed someone with a suspicious bag to come into Diosa, but a bigger part of him was curious. The description sounded like that of something other than a bomb, but delivering roadkill wasn't Jimmy's style. Whatever was in the bag had to be more than simply a dead dog. Trying not to seem too uneasy he got up from the bar and began to walk towards where Fiona was sitting talking with Lyla and Nero.

Quietly, he pulled her aside before speaking. "The IRA was here."

"Why would they be here?" Fiona hissed, "Jimmy thinks we're dead."

"Apparently he had a little present for us." Chibs lowered his voice hoping not to alarm anyone else.

"A bomb?" Fiona asked worried, "Should Nero evacuate the club?"

"I don't think so." Part of him also realized that whatever was in the bag might also be connected strongly with SAMCRO and he needed to at least warn his former brothers of its presence. However, through one of the girls, he'd accidentally heard a nasty rumor that Jax believed him to be a traitor to the club and had told SAMCRO to be careful what they said around him. He doubted if the other man would actually listen to anything he had to say even if it was something that needed to be known.

xxx

It hadn't taken long for Chibs to convince Nero to get Jax to come to Diosa, and by the time the younger man arrived the bag although still unopened had found its way to a table in the main room of the brothel. A horrible scent emanated from the contents and despite what the prostitute had stated, there was no way to describe how horribly it married with the ominous stain that had seeped through onto the leather bag from its contents. Chibs tried to mask his expression of disgust, but next to him, his daughter who had refused to leave the room, looked like she was about to vomit. Part of him wished she'd take sense from her own disgust and run into the other room before he opened the bag, but he knew as a teenager she was extremely curious about the contents and he couldn't say he wouldn't have done the exact same at her age. At this, he chose to remain quiet and hope that whatever was in the bag didn't harm her mental state too much.

Planning to remove the contents himself once Jax arrived to watch, Chibs donned a pair of his leather riding gloves. Normally when he donned the gloves it was a sign of freedom and promise, of taking to the open road to forget his cares. However, this time the leather gloves would not grip the handlebars of his bike, but the rotting flesh of something likely dead and devoid of life. Part of him still hoped that it would just be a dead animal, but knowing Jimmy parts of an unwilling human victim seemed far more likely.

xxx

Jax arrived around fifteen minutes after Nero's call, flanked by Tig and Bobby. Immediately he walked over to the older man, ignoring the bag and the other figures in the room. "You wanted to talk to me?"

"Actually, it was Chibs that wanted you."

Jax turned as if noticing the former club member for the first time and briefly made eye contact with him before speaking. "I have no words with him."

Chibs glared back, irritated at Jax's inability to even engage in proper conversation with him but unwilling to snap with his wife and daughter standing next to him. "Jimmy left us with a little present. I thought you might want to be here for the unwrapping."

"This doesn't change anything." Jax continued to glare even as Tig and Bobby looked slightly ashamed at him.

Finally, Bobby attempted to break the tension "Is that the bag?"

"Aye."

Jax seemed like he wanted to be anywhere else and impatiently gestured towards the luggage "well, are you going to unwrap it or not?"

"No, I thought you might want to put it in the front of the ice cream shop as a conversation starter." When Jax didn't even bother to smile Chibs walked towards the bag as Jax, Bobby and Tig moved to stand where they'd have a clear view of the contents. Fiona and Kerrianne remained standing in the doorway with the former judging the room's hostilities and the latter unsure if she wanted to stay in the room but unwilling to bolt.

Uneasily, Chibs undid the zipper on the bag. At first glance the contents appeared to be a man's suit with a handwritten note on top of it. He had his suspicions that the writing belonged to Jimmy, but being unsure he immediately pulled the note out of the bag and handed it off to Fiona who stepped forward to take it.

"It's Jimmy's handwriting," she confirmed.

Before Chibs could respond to the confirmation, Jax cut in "what does it say?"

" I think it's a threat."

Jax almost seemed to glare at Chibs as he asked his next question, his tone underlying his own threat "against SAMCRO?"

Instead of outright answering, she responded: "somehow he found out about us being here."

Now, it was Chibs turn to feel suspicion towards his former friend, but he bit back his suspicions in favor of discovering the true contents of the bag. Softly he felt the fabric of the suit, feeling the outline of what appeared to be a face beneath it. Even though he'd suspected something dead was in the bag, this discovery chilled him and he immediately froze.

Bobby was the first to notice his shock, "what is it br-?" he stopped short of calling Chibs brother, knowing that it would irritate Jax and fearing the wrath of the younger man.

"I think I just felt a face," at his declaration he heard his wife and daughter both step forward and felt the former place her hand on his shoulder. Now, not bothering to be gentle anymore he jerked the suit jacket aside to reveal the face of the victim. It took a few seconds for him to register who he was looking at, but the others peering into the bag reacted immediately.

"Jesus Christ," Jax and Tig both exclaimed loudly.

At the same moment, he felt the hand release from his shoulder in shock and heard a wet sound that he quickly identified as his daughter vomiting.

From the bag, the severed head of Galen O'Shay stared up at the group with one dead eye. If there had been any reason to feel mercy for the dead man, the bullet wound that had taken out the other eye indicated that he hadn't been alive when his head had been severed from his body. However, the message behind the gory present was far worse than the present itself. Although Galen O'Shay hadn't exactly been someone to respect, he had seemingly kept Jimmy O'Phelan in line and now it was clear that the IRA general respected not even those among his own ranks. This combined with the growing rift between SAMCRO's leader and it's former member meant that there would likely be far more lives lost to the violence that was erupting in Charming.


	18. Chapter 18

There was an obvious immediate aftermath to the bag being opened, and the viewers of the contents split off into two categories at opposite sides of the room. Just out of earshot of the SAMCRO members, Chibs stood with his wife and daughter trying to formulate a course of action. Kerrianne was still shaking, having been horrified by the sight of Galen O'Shay's head lying separated from its body in a pair of his own pants. It was a perfectly natural reaction to what had been witnessed and Chibs couldn't fault his daughter for not handling the situation well. By her age, he had already been married to Fiona and committed his first murder for the IRA, but he was glad that his daughter was still able to be shook up by violence. He didn't want that life for her.

He already assumed she'd been shocked into silence and was surprised when she finally spoke. "Da? Was that really Galen's head in that bag?"

One look at her told him she was certain of what had been in the bag but was looking for some other form of reassuring and he wasn't sure that he could provide it. Instead, he said the first thing that came to mind "sweetheart, Galen wasn't a good man." As soon as the words came out of his mouth he wished he'd spoke differently. On his tongue, the phrase tasted strongly of what it was, that of a hypocrite. However, he decided to hope that his daughter hadn't realized that as well and shifted the conversation elsewhere "Why don't you go ask Nero if you can have a Coke to calm your stomach. I want to talk to your Ma alone."

Kerrianne left the room without another comment, and this relieved him deeply even though he knew that she would find out what he was discussing sooner rather than later.

As soon as his daughter was gone, Fiona turned to him. "How did Jimmy find out we were here?" There was nothing in her tone that accused him of being the cause, but there was obvious fear. The plan with the fake newspaper article had seemed completely foolproof. However, it had taken Jimmy O'Phelan less than a week to see through it.

"He has to have a source close to the club," after a pause Chibs added, "we have to find out who."

"How?"

It was obvious that whatever he said next, would be words she would hate. However, he also knew that no matter what she'd go along with him and this made him regret what he was about to say before the words were even out of his mouth. "I'm going to bring him here and ask him directly."

Fiona laughed bitterly "Why would he do that?"

"Because he's a bloody coward and he won't be able to handle having a woman point a gun at him."

Once she realized exactly what he meant it became obvious that he'd hit the wrong note. Immediately, her lip began to quiver and it became obvious that the suggestion of being in the same room as Jimmy for any reason truly terrified her.

Softly, he took her face in his hands before speaking again "You know I would never do anything put you or Kerri in danger, and this time you won't be in danger either. I need you to trust me on that love."

"He's not going to come to the meeting without a weapon."

"I'll get him to leave it with Nero by convincing him I'm unarmed."

Although the fear had begun to dissipate from Fiona's features she still seemed dubious, "What if something goes wrong?"

"Then you get to kill him."

xxx

Across the room, Jax stood with Bobby and Tig. Rather than being shaken up by the gory discovery, the young man seemed to be fuming. "This is all an elaborate setup."

Tig glanced over at the bag on the table several feet away. "That looks pretty real to me."

Jax glared at him before speaking again. "Think about it. Jimmy O'Phelan reveals that he's not as dead as Chibs assured us he was. Then only a few weeks later while we're trying to rebuild ourselves his wife shows up. Only days later Chibs suddenly decides he doesn't want to be SAMCRO anymore. He's been working with the IRA the whole time."

Bobby stole a glance at the target of Jax's aggression much to the younger man's annoyance. It was clear that across the room some conversation that couldn't be heard was going on, but from all the years he'd known Chibs the man had seemed to be someone who was level-headed and steadfastly loyal. Although it was true he'd left the club, the anger and disgust he'd talked about Jimmy O'Phelan with over the years made it clear in his mind that his leaving wasn't a show of loyalty to the IRA and Bobby wondered if his stunt had motivations similar to his own when he'd "went nomad". "We've all known Chibs for over a decade now. If he was still working with the IRA don't you think it would have become evident earlier?"

"It's about survival." Jax cast one last disgusted look towards the bag on the table before continuing "Let's head back to the ice cream shop."

Tig immediately looked uncomfortable and looked down at where his hands were folded over his crotch in an exaggerated motion. "Actually boss, I have this weird thing where severed heads make me kind of you know..."

A look of confusion briefly flitted across Jax's face before he realized what Tig was trying to say. "There's something incredibly wrong with your mind."

Although the young biker's words were hypocritical Bobby was about to follow him out of the door until Tig nudged him hard once Jax's back was turned. As soon as Bobby turned to look at his he silently gestured to the former club member across the room.

Noticing Bobby wasn't following him, Jax turned around to look at the pair again as Tig returned to his uncomfortably aroused appearance. "Bobby are you with me?"

"Somebody has to keep Nero from catching him with Galen O'Shay's severed head."

The explanation seemed to satisfy Jax and he turned to leave the brothel.

As soon as he was out the door Tig immediately began walking purposefully over to where the former club member was still standing with his wife.

xxx

Chibs was so intently focused on trying to make sure his wife felt safe with the plan, that he didn't notice the approaching SAMCRO members until Bobby spoke.

"Is this a bad time?"

Chibs turned to look at the two men, a little irritated with himself for letting them get so close without his knowing. Quickly he glanced at Fiona who was wiping her eyes before speaking "It depends on what this is about."

"Jax thinks you're working with IRA", Bobby began before remembering that the woman who had just finished wiping her eyes had strong IRA connections, "other than your wife."

Chibs glared at him, "You have anything to tell me that I haven't already heard?"

Bobby gestured to Tig "neither of us believe that to be true."

If the declaration had any effect on Chibs, it didn't show on his face and he snorted as if brushing them off.

"We want to know what your next move is." That comment came from Tig.

"So you can run back to Jax and tell him what I've been doing behind his back?" Although it didn't fit what he knew of the men, Chibs immediately wondered if either Tig or Bobby had run to Jimmy to rat on him and were now trying to cover their asses or were going to run to tell him rather than Jax.

"Whatever is said in this room stays right here," Bobby responded.

Chibs still didn't know if he believed either of the men, but if one or both of them seemed to squirm at his words maybe he could avoid having to actually involve his wife in having to be in the same room as the man who had raped and abused her for almost a decade. "Somebody told Jimmy that my family was here, alive. I'm going to find out who."

The look from the other two men was not that of guilty scared men, but one of curious friends. "How are you going to do that?" Tig asked.

Chibs glanced at his wife before speaking to see if she thought he should continue revealing the plan or just dismiss them outright. When she didn't try to stop him he continued speaking "Jimmy O'Phelan was never blessed with the gift of modesty."

Bobby looked skeptical, "he might be growing a bit sloppy with killing Galen, but he's still been smart enough to hide from us for two years."

For the first time in the conversation, Fiona spoke sounding much more calm about the plan than she had only minutes earlier. "We have ways around that."

A seed that had been planted in the two mens' heads earlier when talking with Jax began to germinate. It was the nagging idea that the president of SAMCRO had been the one to run to O'Phelan out of retaliation for Chibs leaving. However, Bobby was the only one to speak "We want in on this meeting."

Chibs was about to outright deny the suggestion, but something told him that he could learn just as much from the other men being in the room as he would from O'Phelan alone. Something else also made him want to stop the risk of them running to tell Jax about it if they weren't involved. "You two can be there as silent observers. If Jimmy has any suspicion he's going to be manipulated beforehand or Jax even knows of the meeting then both of you are as good as dead."


	19. Chapter 19

When Chibs had decided to set up the meeting between him and his nemesis the other man had been all too eager to accept the opportunity, even on such short notice. There had been something in his tone even over the phone that indicated that he thought his presence would mentally unravel Chibs, and although he'd never know it, he had been right. With less than an hour before the other man was set to arrive, Chibs was sitting on the meeting table nervously dangling his feet like an antsy child. In front of him, his wife paced back and forth checking and rechecking the weapon in her hands as if the bullets might have somehow disappeared in the time since the last check. Tig and Bobby stood off to one side of the room looking for all intents and purposes like they were lost. Although both men believed Chibs was strong enough to be in an authority position in the situation, neither were used to being simply silent and passive and therefore both looked like they'd rather be anywhere else.

Suddenly, Nero peered his head into the room nervously. "The IRA guy is here. He's got a younger fella with him too."

Chibs stood up automatically wanting to straighten his phantom cut, letting his hands fall to his side once he remembered that all he had on was a dark blue button-up shirt. "I'll meet him at the bar first," after a pause he added "tell one of the girls to take the younger guy to a back room. We don't want him being a thorn in our sides"

Nero lowered his voice so that just Chibs could hear what he was saying "you're not going to kill the O'Phelan guy here, are you?"

"Just entertain him until I'm ready to see him," Chibs growled in response.

Taking in his glare Nero backed out of the room. "Okay Esse, but don't expect me personally to give him the same treatment you want for the other guy. I am not offering to give him a blowjob."

As soon as Nero left the room, Chibs stood up from the table. Despite wanting to appear calm and confident he felt like a newborn fawn taking its first steps. If Jimmy had already been in the room he would have likely leered at the Scotsman, but he would see a far more composed version of him.

After a few moments of composing himself, he nodded to Tig and Bobby. Before walking out of the room he softly patted his wife on the shoulder, "It's going to be okay love."

Jimmy was sitting at the bar talking with Nero. There was something that almost looked deceivingly normal about the conversation as if two friends were chatting over drinks until Jimmy spotted the approaching trio and rose from his seat. With a sneer, he took in Chibs' lack of a cut. "So the rumors about you being kicked out of the club are true."

Sensing that Chibs was about to snap, Bobby stepped in to answer "he wasn't kicked out."

Jimmy offered a raised eyebrow of disbelief as a response. "What did you do with O'Rourke?"

"The last thing I need is a gun pointed at my head while we're trying to talk," Chibs sneered in response.

Jimmy held up his hands in mock innocence, his voice dripping with fake concern as if he knew it would unnerve Chibs even more "you don't trust me?"

Instead of answering him, Chibs turned to Tig "pat him down."

Tig grinned, walking behind the Irishman before leaning close enough that his lips brushed the other man's ear "It's nothing personal."

Although to Chibs it was all very personal, watching his nemesis look truly panicked made it all worth it.

For a short time, the two men stared at each-other as Tig patted down Jimmy. Then suddenly, shortly after Tig had pulled a small handgun out of his back pocket and tossed it to the side, Jimmy growled violently and whipped his head around to glare at the other man. "Get your filthy hands away from my prick!"

Tig redacted his hand in mock embarrassment "I could have sworn I felt a gun down there."

Jimmy snorted, "are you done humiliating me, or is that the whole reason you invited me here so Trager could grope me?"

Chibs shook his head no before gesturing towards the meeting room "we'll talk in here."

Before Jimmy could even register her presence, Fiona had her gun pointed at his head and Chibs noted that his wife had managed to plaster on an icy stare. "Sit down!"

Instead of obeying, Jimmy turned to Chibs almost incredulous "Jesus Christ, you invited the crazy bitch?"

Something in Chibs snapped at the comment. Even though he knew that he was reacting exactly how Jimmy wanted him to react, he felt rage bubbling up inside of him about to erupt like a boiling volcano and he felt as soon as he finally got the other man to sit down he'd choke the life out of him with his bare hands. "Do exactly as she tells you, you filthy coward!"

Instead of obeying him Jimmy let out a loud, cocky laugh "Coward? I'm not the one relying on a woman with a gun to protect me."

The entire room became aware of the flipped switch in Chibs' posture as prepared to literally pounce on the other man. For a second, Fiona almost dropped her gun, prepared to step in and save her husband from himself, but Bobby sprung into action first, placing himself between the Scotsman and his target. "Hey brother, remember why you wanted to have this meeting."

Chibs took a deep breath and nodded before shooting one last withering glare at his nemesis.

Something in the glare made Jimmy realize that if he kept pushing buttons he truly could end up dead and his self-preservation instinct kicked in and without even bothering to sling a snarky remark in the other man's direction he sat down crossing his hands in front of him on the table.

As soon as Jimmy sat down Bobby moved to return to his position near Tig and Chibs took another glance around the room to make sure everything was in place. The layout of the room wasn't completely ideal and he realized this now. Behind Fiona, there was an open doorway. However, something told him that Jimmy was intelligent enough to know that if he made a move towards the doorway his brains would be splattered all over the wall. This made him feel safe actually sitting down in front of the other man on the table.

From across the table, Jimmy glowered at him, apparently having regained at least a portion of his bravado or at least the ability to fake it. "Care to explain to me why I've endured so much humiliation at your hands today?"

Rather than outright answering his question Chibs growled: "Who is your mole?"

At first, Jimmy acted as if he didn't know what Chibs was talking about, cocking his head almost as if he was trying to play the confused child who had no clue he'd done anything wrong. "What makes you think I have a mole?"

Chibs pressed on, strengthened by hearing the sound of his wife chambering a round in her gun. "Somebody told you she wasn't killed in a car accident. Who was it?"

Rather than speaking to Chibs, Jimmy turned to look at Fiona. "You can't escape me. I'm everywhere."

A quick glance at his wife told Chibs that although she wanted to remain in control, Jimmy's icy gaze was shaking her. His first instinct was to keep her safe and he grabbed the other man's chin with his uninjured hand, sharply jerking his head around so he was forced to face him.

At first, Jimmy fought him, angrily trying to jerk away and glaring like a venomous snake wanting to strike. However, his head hit the cold steel of the gun barrel and instead he stopped to regard Chibs, puffing his cheeks out in annoyance.

"Who is your mole?!" Chibs repeated. Then, before Jimmy could answer an idea hit him "Is Jax the one who told you about my wife and daughter?"

Jimmy raised an eyebrow as if he was doubting who's family Fiona and Kerrianne would most qualify as, but his words had clear implications. "Why would I sleep with Jackson Teller?"

"The mole's a woman?" Fiona asked, speaking for the first time since she'd demanded Jimmy take a seat.

"Doesn't have to be a woman." When Tig's response was met with blank stares from every other person in the room he shrugged "I'm just saying."

Although he looked deeply offended, both Chibs' hand still on his chin and the gun pressed to the back of his head seemed to make Jimmy decide to continue speaking, if only to reaffirm his heterosexuality. "She gives me what I need and I give her something she wants."

Chibs was about to question whether the supposed symbiotic relationship was an overestimate of Jimmy's own sexual prowess or his own form of toying with them, but he never got the chance. Seconds after the words had left his nemesis's mouth a loud shot rang out piercing the closed wooden door from the outside. His reaction to the shot was to immediately give his nemesis whiplash by again violently jerking his head to the point where the chair he was sitting in almost toppled over. Around him, the room exploded into terrified chaos.


	20. Chapter 20

In the initial chaos, it was almost impossible to figure out what happened. Chibs dove off the table trying to protect himself from more bullets and almost as an instinct dove to protect his wife as well. Nearby he caught Tig and Bobby also diving to the ground. From his vantage point on the floor, he noted that although Jimmy hadn't dove out of his chair the other man did seem a bit shaken. However, this could simply be the result of recovering from the violent attack Chibs had provided him with and not a sign of innocence from some great ploy to murder his interrogators.

Suddenly, as the confusion seemed to clear the sound of footsteps echoed from the open doorway that led further into the brothel. As Chibs stood, dusting himself off and pulling Fiona to her feet the confusion deepened. Kellan O'Rourke was standing mere feet away from him. The young man was only partially clothed and the whore that sounded like she belonged in one of Abel's children's shows was standing behind him barely clothed in a tight robe.

As if to confirm that he was in no way responsible for the shooting O'Rourke mouthed "bloody hell?" to Jimmy.

At the same time, across the room, Bobby stood up "What the fuck was that?"

Next to him, Tig regained his footing, looking around trying to decide if the shooting truly was over.

However, before anybody could decide what had truly happened, the door to the room swung open. Jax stood on the other side of the doorway, having thrown it open with one hand. In the other hand, the gun that had shot into the room was still held. There was something else about him, something in his eyes though that made both the current SAMCRO members and the ex-Vice President uneasy. Whatever warmth and life that had once been apparent on his face was now gone. In its place were the dead eyes of a man that wasn't completely there. At first, it was unclear what had triggered the obvious change. However, when Jax raised his gun again, putting the only woman fully in the room in his sights the so-called trigger became clear.

Something about whatever insanity had taken over Jax's mind dulled his reaction time and taking advantage of this Chibs was able to push his wife out of the way. The bullet flew through the air, cutting a flesh trail across the back of the former SAMCRO member as he dove to the floor. The bullet, however, did find a fatal mark. For a moment, O'Rourke's eyes went wide as the bullet sunk into his chest and then he sunk to the floor, falling right next to the ducking couple still gurgling and spewing blood. Immediately the hooker began to scream. The sound of her screams must have annoyed Jax because almost immediately the gun turned to her and another bullet flew through the air striking it's intended target this time. She was dead before her body even hit the ground.

Somehow in the chaos, Jimmy had managed to obtain the gun that Fiona had dropped when she'd been pushed to the floor, and now he stood up with it pointed at Jax who was now out of bullets in his own gun. "You're a real crazy bastard Teller," although the words out of his mouth were those of a hypocrite something about the tone almost betrayed that Jax had rattled even him. After a pause to glance around at the other men in the room, he continued "this was part of your plan all along wasn't it? I bet there's probably already a couple of graves dug out back and about now you expected to be tossing my body into one of them didn't ya?" with a smirk he added, "you seem to have forgotten that I'm always a step ahead of you." In truth, he hadn't been a step ahead. Like every other person in the room, he'd barely escaped from Jax's actions. However, somehow he'd managed to delude himself into believing he was always stronger and smarter than the members and former member of SAMCRO.

"I don't know what their plan was. Their choice to invite you over wasn't discussed with the rest of SAMCRO," Jax snorted with an air of determination and cockiness that almost matched Jimmy's.

"Is that so?" the other man asked with a small smirk forming. "I thought SAMCRO was a brotherhood."

Behind him, with Jax distracted by the gun pointed at him, Chibs got to his feet and glanced uneasily at Tig and Bobby. The look shared between the three men cemented that each on agreed the last thing they wanted O'Phelan to know was that the club was suffering. None of the men spoke up to attempt to correct Jax though because with his recent behavior he seemed to be almost as much of a threat as the other man with the loaded gun.

"I don't care if you bastards rip each other's bloody throats out, but you're going to let me leave this room alive yeah?" Jimmy asked, waving the gun around at the other figures in the room as if reminding the others that he could easily kill them all and this made him the alpha male in the situation.

The gun was a powerful incentive towards buying his survival for another day, and although it was clear by the facial expressions that nobody wanted him to leave, Jax allowed him to pass unharmed.

However, as soon as the IRA general was gone the young biker again turned rageful towards Tig and Bobby. "This should have been a club decision!"

"How are we supposed to bring our decisions before a man that just tried to kill us because he didn't get his way?!" Tig raged back.

Angrily Jax gestured to Chibs in response "So you'd rather bring important SAMCRO decisions before a man who left the club so he could put his trust in some IRA whore who's probably still banging the man I had to let escape?!" Something about his posture after throwing out the latest taunt showed that he already expected Chibs to react badly and wanted whatever fight might come.

Chibs was about to fall for the bait as well, poised and postured to leap over the table and beat Jax with his bare hands. However, a hand on his arm stopped him. "It's not worth it."

Chibs wasn't sure if he agreed with what his wife was saying, but something about the way it was said made him stop before launching himself at Jax. Instead, he regarded the other man with a steely glare from across the table. That's when he noticed something clasped in Jax's palm, just barely sticking out of the pocket of his pants. It was the hilt of a shiny knife, one that would have undoubtedly found it's mark in his stomach if he had lunged at Jax.


	21. Chapter 21

Jax turned to look at Tig and Bobby, "Let's go."

For a second, the two men exchanged a look and then Bobby spoke. "We're not going with you."

At first, Jax looked angry, but the look faded almost immediately and he turned away from the group in the room.

It was tempting to not let him leave the room alive after the stunt he'd pulled. However, the one gun policy had backfired spectacularly and the only weapon that had been in the room was now speeding away from Diosa in Jimmy O'Phelan's hands.

Even if a gun was on hand, killing the president of SAMCRO without first explaining why to the other club members was suicide at best.

As soon as Jax was gone, the room temporarily filled with a tense silence.

Finally, Chibs spoke "Jesus Christ! What a mess."

The room was indeed a mess. One chair was knocked over and lying a few feet from the table. On the floor, the now truly deceased Kellan O'Rourke was lying in a pool of his own blood. Directly behind him, also on the floor was the corpse of the hooker. The back wall of the room was splattered with a mix of the two's blood.

After a pause, he asked, "Which one of you told Jax about the meeting?"

"Look, we know how important that meeting was for you," Bobby answered, "we wouldn't risk ruining it like that."

Although he appeared to believe them, Chibs still wasn't happy. "Well someone did, and it nearly cost us our bloody lives!"

Tig raked a hand through his hair before speaking "Did you ask Nero? Maybe he didn't quite get the message."

It hadn't originally occurred to Chibs that Nero might be the one who had told Jax about the meeting. However, the suggestion did seem to make sense. Although the older man had seemed friendly and willing to shelter his family, he was still dating Gemma. Because of this, there had been a tenseness, but he'd been too worried about what Jimmy was doing to notice it as much as he should have.

xxx

By early afternoon, almost all signs of the events of the morning were gone. The corpses had been whisked away by Happy and Chibs hadn't bothered to ask where they were going. All visible blood was cleaned out of the room, and work was already being done to hide the bullet holes in the door and wall. However, the notion that Nero had been the one who had tipped off Jax still reigned strong. Telling Jax of the meeting could have been an honest mistake. However, it could also be a sign that Nero had a different agenda than the one he portrayed.

The worries about ulterior motives had driven Chibs to take his family back to his house. Still, doing so made him nervous. His house wasn't exactly what he considered secure. In the dining room, there was a large paned glass sliding door. The garage also could be opened from the most generic of door openers and Jax still had a key he hadn't returned as nobody expected the feud to go this far. Still, he had nowhere else to take his wife and daughter and he could easily have the locks changed on his doors if it became necessary.

A loud knock at the door shook him out of his thoughts and he immediately reached for his gun before turning to his wife and daughter who were both already standing up at the sound. Softly, but forcefully he growled, "go into the kitchen!" It was obvious by the look on his wife's face that she wanted to protest so he added: "get the gun out of the cookie jar!"

As soon as they were safely in the other room he walked towards to door and pulled back the curtain to see who was on the other side.

xxx

Across town above the ice cream shop, a different kind of meeting was taking place. The spot at the head of the table was empty and the room held an air of tension. By now the events of the morning had become known by all members of the club and although originally there had been distaste about the exclusion of most of the club from it, now every man seemed to know what had to be done. Jackson Teller was no longer fit to lead the club and had to be impeached for his role as president. Normally, the notion of changing leaders while in the midst of battling an outside force, but having a man who was as much of a loose cannon as Jax had become leading them felt almost the same as giving O'Phelan himself a cut.

The impeachment had gone about as well as it might be expected with Jax's current mental state. The younger man seemed to believe that instead of having become a power crazy maniac he had been wronged by the rest of the club. Before storming out of the room he'd turned back to the remaining club members and stated "You're making a big mistake. Without me, you'll all be buried by O'Phelan!"

After he stormed down the stairs, a loud bang punctuated the air followed by the sound of a car alarm and a motorcycle speeding away. The sound of the car alarm made it almost urgent to investigate what had caused the sound before somebody called the police and it became an even more sticky situation.

The scene outside was a complete wreckage. Jax had pushed the bike at the end of the line, which happened to be Bobby's into the other motorcycles causing a domino effect of sorts. The final bike, Tig's, had fallen into a car that was parked a few feet away shattering the window of it and setting off the car alarm.


	22. Chapter 22

Much to Chibs surprise Sheriff Eli Roosevelt stood on the other side of the door. Slowly, the former SAMCRO member lowered his gun and plastered a fake smile on his face before undoing the chain to open the door. "What can I do for you Sheriff?"

"A call came in this morning from the Diosa brothel reporting gunfire on the premises."

Chibs tried to remain stoic while at the same time wondering who had called in the murders. "Well it's a shame that happened but I'm not sure how I can help you," he responded trying to sound cocky and unmoved.

Roosevelt seemed unwilling to buy Chibs' lie and tried to peer into the doorway around him. "Are you alone?"

Chibs gave the sheriff an incredulous look while silently praying that for once the women in the house would stay in the kitchen. "I thought this was about what happened at Diosa this morning?"

"According to Nero Padilla you've been staying at Diosa, with your wife who has known ties to an international terrorist organization." Roosevelt pressed on.

Chibs grimaced trying to quickly come up with a lie that would both get the sheriff off his back and save Fiona from being taken from him by greedy pigs who only saw her as a felon. "Sheriff, I don't know if you realized this but Mr. Padilla has quite the imagination. I wouldn't take anything he said at face value."

Roosevelt snorted "Why should I take your word over his?"

Chibs was about to retort when the glint of an approaching motorcycle caught his eye. The bike was speeding, but he saw enough to quickly identify it as Jax's. Instead of giving the other man a chance to reveal his true intentions he found himself immediately dropping to the ground and shielding himself. The move proved to be lifesaving as seconds later two gunshots ripped through the air shattering the quiet of the suburban neighborhood. As the bike sped off he registered a red liquid on the ground in front of him. Slowly, he followed the blood trail back to its source. "Jesus Christ!"

Hearing his exclamation and realizing the shooting was over, Fiona and Kerrianne rushed out of hiding. Normally he would have chided them for such carelessness, but this time he didn't think Sheriff Eli Roosevelt would be trying to take his family away from him.

Slowly Chibs got to his feet as his daughter rushed into his arms. "Da! Did you get hit?!"

"The bullets missed me, Darling," pausing he looked to his wife "I can't say the same about the sheriff though."

For the first time, Kerrianne seemed to notice Roosevelt's body. "Is he dead?"

Taking the question at face value it almost sounded liked what one might phrase as a stupid question. The bullet had left a large gaping hole in the back of Eli's skull. The man clearly wasn't alive in the present and Chibs doubted he had even lived long enough to feel his body hit the pavement. Still, Chibs realized the question wasn't as much a literal "is he dead?" as it was "why is he dead?"

"I don't think he was the intended target."

xxx

Jimmy was truly disgusted with himself. He was an attractive enough man that he could probably easily pick up any woman that he wanted. Yet instead, here he was with Jax Teller's junkie ex-wife. Wendy Case wasn't the worst sexual experience he'd had, and when she was full of drugs she spilled every dirty little secret of SAMCRO's to him. However, her inability to keep secrets meant he also had to watch what he said around her lest she decide to turn right around and find someone to spill his secrets to.

After he'd had to flee Diosa he'd almost immediately ran to her apartment and made up some excuse that had satisfied her surprisingly easily. After that, they'd had intercourse. The noises she'd made during the act itself had almost killed the mood for him, but the way she'd worked her body around him had made up for every disgusting moan she'd made.

Now, the junkie whore was in the other room shooting poison into her veins. Jimmy had provided the drugs knowing that they'd make her do and say exactly what he wanted her to. Still, he couldn't stand watching her actually inject them as it reminded him of the lows he'd sunken to by being with her. Instead, he was standing in her kitchen wearing only a pair of black slacks and drinking one of her disgusting American beers.

He'd almost convinced himself that the beer actually did taste halfway decent when she came out of the bedroom. If he'd thought she looked bad before he'd started drinking and she'd injected herself with the latest round of drugs, now she looked even less appealing. The eyeshadow she'd been wearing had begun to smudge and her dark eyes looked almost lifeless from whatever effect the drugs had already caused in her. She was staggering too and when she walked right over to him he had to steel his nerves to keep from pushing her away.

Eventually, when she lost her usefulness he'd find some way to dispose of her. Right now, however, she was exactly what he needed to have the upper hand over SAMCRO.


	23. Chapter 23

News had a funny way of spreading in Charming, and after less than twenty-four hours Tara already knew about her husband's erratic behavior and subsequent expulsion from SAMCRO. This was the final straw. No longer could she wait for the law to come through and rescue her and her sons from Charming and her attempt at getting help from Fiona Larkin had also fallen through. Now, she knew that she was the only one who could save two little boys from a horrible fate, even if it meant packing a bag and stealing away with them in the middle of the night.

Right now, Abel was sitting on the bed playing with a teddy bear with Thomas in his car seat a few feet away.

Tara couldn't help but smile at how happy and peaceful her boys looked as if they already knew that they would finally be free from the influence of the club and would never have to grow up to hurt or kill others. Her thoughts of happiness were interrupted by the loud sound of the front door being opened and somebody walking angrily into the house.

Although she wasn't sure what exactly was happening, Tara's first instinct was to protect Abel and Thomas. Without thinking, she grabbed Thomas and pushed him under the bed, motioning for Abel to follow his brother. "Whatever you do, don't get out from under the bed unless Mommy tells you to." She wasn't sure what she expected to have happen, but something made her feel like she wasn't in a safe situation and she didn't want her sons to get hurt.

Trying to plaster on her best unafraid face she opened the bedroom door and walked out to face whoever had entered the home.

Gemma Teller stood in the entryway. The older woman was absolutely seething. "What do you think you're doing?!"

At first, Tara wasn't sure if Gemma was actually referencing that she knew what she was going to do. "I don't know what you're talking about Gemma."

This was a triggering comment. Almost as if a switch had been flipped on, rather than responding, Gemma lunged at her. Trying to think quickly, Tara felt the table behind her for any item that could be used to stop the charging woman. Her hand felt a statue of an elephant and as Gemma's hands wrapped around her throat she broke the statue against the other woman's face.

Stunned, Gemma released her and reached up to feel the blood oozing out of her now broken nose. Taking this opportunity to attempt an escape Tara tried to dart around the other woman, not planning to leave her sons alone with their mad grandmother but hoping to reach a room with better weapons.

However, Gemma quickly recovered and tripped her, causing her to fall into the shards of the broken elephant. To ensure that Tara would be hurt, as soon as she fell Gemma pressed a shoe into her back forcing the broken glass to cut into the other woman's face.

From her position on the floor, Tara heard the sound of the door opening again.

xxx

As a man, he didn't like to admit when he needed help and the admittance that he needed it from the club he'd just turned his back on was even harder to make. Luckily, Chibs didn't have to.

The police had shown up and put up crime scene tape while asking what they thought were all the right questions. Of course, they'd looked at him suspiciously. What were the odds of the sheriff ending up dead on the doorstep of an ex-member of the city's most violent gang? However, they'd found nothing on him and had taken away Roosevelt's body while advising him not to leave town.

As soon as they left Tig had walked up to the door as if he'd forgotten that the other man was no longer a member of the club. "What the hell happened man?"

"A big bloody mess," Chibs sighed, unsure if he was talking specifically about the sheriff's demise or about the situation of the entire day.

"The club voted Jax out."

"So?" Chibs responded, unsure what the other man was trying to get at.

"I just thought you'd want to know we took care of it."

Chibs snorted "You're trying to persuade me to come back aren't you?"

"At this point, we'd take an alliance. Look, man, we need you. I know your family needs you too so you don't have to come back to the club, but an alliance would be beneficial to all of us."

Chibs considered what the other man was saying for a minute. He wasn't about to beg for his cut back, but with all that was going on, he felt like he could use help protecting his family. Still, he remembered the club using lies to lure former allies into a trap and he didn't want that. "I'm the one in charge in this relationship okay?!" he tried to make himself sound as menacing as possible to show that he wasn't about to be lured and slaughtered by his old club.

Tig seemed to debate for a moment before agreeing, "Okay brother, your terms."

xxx

Chibs made his first condition that instead of him and his family going back to the club base at the ice cream shop, the club had to come to him. If the house had a large kitchen table the men would have been crowded around it, but it didn't so the bikers were scattered around the kitchen and living room claiming various pieces of furniture. Chibs himself wasn't actually sitting, but standing in front of the men with his wife nearby leaning on a chair. In the other room, his daughter leaned over the kitchen island as if she was unsure if she wanted to be there but still too curious to leave. Part of him liked having both his wife and daughter in his sight as it let him know they were okay.

As soon as everyone was in their place, Bobby turned to Chibs. "What's your plan brother?"

Chibs thought for a second before speaking "I want to find out who Jimmy's mole is. We're going to split into groups and talk with the women associated with SAMCRO." Instead of waiting for the club's response he found himself dictating orders of who checked out who. "Tig and Rat have Gemma. Juice is taking Wendy. Bobby talks with Colette Jane. Hap has Lyla and I'll take my wife and daughter and talk with Tara."


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Abel is younger than he was in series in this story (about three) and Thomas is older (about two) because I tried to go with what their ages should have been in the time frame of the series not how the series actually portrayed them...this becomes important to note as Thomas speaks later in this chapter.

"Do I have to come with you and Ma?" Kerrianne whined.

Chibs sighed "I don't think it's safe for you to stay here alone sweetheart." Deep down he hoped it was a lie and nothing else would go wrong before sundown, but he found himself feeling uneasy like the grim reaper was still hanging around waiting to claim another victim and the last thing he wanted was for any of his family members to fall the next victim.

A quick glance at his wife told him she felt the same oppressive feeling and before Kerrianne could even try to get Fiona to side with her, the older woman quickly ushered her into the car before sliding into the driver's seat without even asking him if he wanted to drive.

This almost came as a relief as it meant he didn't have to admit his hand still hurt too much for him to be able to drive. Still, the uncomfortable feeling lingered until they reached they house Jax and Tara shared.

Tara's car was in the driveway and Jax's bike was mercifully absent, but somehow this did nothing to ease the feelings of nervousness.

Chibs walked up to the door and knocked "Doc, it's Chibs."

There was no answer and rather than accept that she possibly didn't want to talk to him he tried the door and let himself in when he found it open.

He noticed the broken porcelain at the same moment the sickly sweet smell of blood hit his nostrils.

He stopped so suddenly in the doorway that his daughter walked right into his back instead of stopping in time. "Da what's wrong?"

Instead of answering he used his good hand to unholster his gun before moving forward. Behind him, his wife unholstered her own gun. Although he hadn't realized she even had a weapon on her, it's presence made sense and felt good.

The feeling quickly evaporated when he moved just a few feet further and saw what was in the living room. The body on the couch obviously belonged to Tara and the doctor was bound and partially nude. There was so much blood covering her that it was hard to tell where the actual wounds were.

"Jesus Christ!" Chibs exclaimed. Although he was a man who had seen a good deal of violence in his life, this felt worse. Tara was someone he'd thought of almost like a little sister and now she was apparently dead in one of the most violent and bloody methods possible. To top it off, just seeing her lying on the couch made it clear that she probably wasn't Jimmy's secret lover. Although the man wasn't beyond hurting his romantic partners he preferred methods that wouldn't leave himself drenched in blood and whoever harmed Tara would have been covered in it.

He was so sure that the doctor was already dead that he almost turned away unwilling to look at the horrible sight any longer. However, at that exact moment, Tara let out a soft pained moan.

Unsure if he'd actually heard the moan at first Chibs remained frozen for a second until Kerrianne nervously begged: "Da, help her!"

Chibs reholstered his gun before rushing into the room. He knew that he couldn't treat her wounds himself and paramedics would have to be called, but the idea of leaving Tara to be found so humiliated, especially if she didn't survive, felt all wrong to him.

Almost as if she was thinking the exact same thing, Fiona handed him her jacket which he carefully placed over Tara's body.

In response, Tara whimpered and tried to pull away.

"It's okay Doc, we're gonna get you some help."

Instead of answering in a way that made sense, Tara mumbled "my boys."

Chibs knew that she had to be referencing Abel and Thomas, but he wasn't sure what she meant by mentioning them. "They're not here."

In response, the younger woman violently thrashed and began crying out "No! No! They took them! They took them!"

Unsure of how to react, Chibs gently held her down to keep her from further hurting herself with the thrashing. At the same time, he found himself feeling afraid for the Teller children and found himself focusing completely on their injured mother, completely ignoring everything that was going on around them. He knew Fiona was probably on the phone now likely anonymously calling the paramedics, but if in that second he'd been asked where his daughter was he wouldn't have been able to give an answer. "Who took them? Who took Abel and Thomas?"

Before Tara could respond something else came back into his frame of concentration.

It was Kerrianne yelling at him "Da!"

He couldn't fathom what would be important enough to distract him from the potentially dying woman so when he turned around to confront her he could hear the irritation in his voice. "What?!"

"Th-There's suitcases on the bed, and I think there's something under it." Kerrianne stuttered, eyeing him with distrust almost as if his yelling had made her have visions of Jimmy for a brief moment and this immediately made him feel guilty.

Chibs mentally promised himself that he'd find a way to make it up to her later before speaking. "Stay here with Tara. I'll check the bedroom."

xxx

As soon as he entered the bedroom it became obvious that Tara had been planning some sort of escape from Charming. Two suitcases were lying on the bed. One laid open, partially filled with the doctor's clothes. The other one was already zipped up, and finding curiosity getting the best of him, Chibs reached forward, ready to unzip it.

Instead, he was distracted by the sound of soft sniffling under the bed. Immediately he recognized the crying as belonging to Abel. The size of the room prevented him from getting down on his stomach to fully peer under the bed, but he was able to crouch and bend somewhat uncomfortably to better get a view of the area under the bed.

"Abel?"

"Mommy said not to come out unless she told us to."

Abel didn't seem to have the notion of hiding in silence quite down yet, but at least this meant that whoever hurt Tara hadn't taken him or Thomas. "Well, I think since it's your uncle Chibs, Mommy would be fine with you coming out of hiding."

Abel crawled out immediately, but Thomas lingered under the bed for a minute and said something that made Chibs' blood run even colder than it already felt. "Why were Daddy and Grandma hurting Mommy?"


	25. Chapter 25

Although he was trying to appear strong and unbreakable, Chibs found himself almost ready to vomit. He was no longer in Jax and Tara's house and instead back in the car about a block away with Fiona in the driver's seat. His daughter was in the back seat trying to shield Abel and Thomas from the view down the street. An anonymous call had been placed to 911 and until he could hear the approaching ambulance, Chibs had stayed at Tara's side, almost expecting her to die before help could arrive. As the sirens became obvious he'd found himself placing a picture of Abel and Thomas on her chest. Making sure she would be able to see her boys seemed like the most humane thing to do without actually exposing them to her condition.

As soon as he'd slipped out of the door he'd made his way to the car that was already parked a block away. It would have been easy enough to ask his wife to just hit the gas and get them out of there as soon as possible, but he had to see them bring Tara out of the house and although he could see his wife thought doing so was risky, she wanted to see the other woman bought out as well.

In the gravity of the event, talking felt wrong so for several minutes the only sounds belonged to the ambulance and Abel and Thomas who were quietly sniffling. Then, almost as if to serve as a reminder that Charming was full of dangers, Chibs' cellphone began to play a familiar tune. It was Juice's ringtone, the theme for The X Files. If Chibs had chosen the ringtone himself he would have chosen something much different, as the only episode he'd ever seen had been about deadly fireflies and had left a strange bad taste in his mouth. However, Juice had the entire series memorized and he loved the glee that the other man had taken in setting his ringtone.

However, in the silence, the music was even eerier than usual and made the atmosphere in the car even tenser.

Unsure of what to expect, Chibs decided to take the call. "I don't think the doc is who we-", he started only to be cut off before he could tell the other man what had happened to Tara.

"Yeah, I know that. It's Wendy," Juice paused and lowered his voice even more. "Jimmy saw me."

Chibs nervously raked his bad hand through his hair before wincing sharply at the pain the involuntary reaction caused "Jesus Christ. Where are you now?"

There was a brief tense silence at the end of the line before Juice spoke again "I'm under a parked car. He was following me, but I don't think he...oh shit." suddenly Juice's voice took on a different almost pleading tone as it became clear he was speaking to someone on his end of the phone line. "Think about what you're planning to do. It doesn't have to end like this."

The second voice sounded slightly further away but was still clear enough that Chibs could make out that it belonged to Jimmy and although he could only make out some of the words the IRA general sounded angry.

Still, when the sound of a gunshot sounded through the phone with sickening clarity, it was enough of a shock that he found himself dropping the phone to the floor of the car.

xxx

It was a stupid, pride-filled act and Jimmy realized his error the moment the bullet entered the biker's skull. He had zero remorse over killing Juice, but making a public spectacle of the murder was the wrong thing to do. In his rage over Juice showing up at Wendy's house, he'd chased the other man out of the house without even bothering to finish getting dressed. Although there was no acceptable way to be caught standing over a corpse with a gun, the way the California humidity was sticking to his bare chest and back made him feel disgusted. Then there was the fact that whoever had been at the other end of Juice's phone conversation probably already knew what had happened.

Still, now that the act had been committed it couldn't be undone and even if there was time to save the other man it wasn't in his nature to do so. Instead, he forced himself not to continue to be a sitting duck and stand over the corpse.

Although surprisingly nobody bothered to actually look out their windows while he was on the street, the moment he was back inside the apartment of Jax Teller's junkie whore ex-wife it became clear that a wrench had been thrown into his plan. Although the woman had shot up less than an hour earlier, the glassy dead-eyed stoner look that had disgusted him earlier was now gone. In its place was one that told him she now knew exactly what he was and was ready to turn on him.

"You lied to me."

The look in her eyes told him that if he didn't act fast his freedom would be short-lived. Although he still had his gun, shooting her was far too messy and with one corpse in the neighborhood already he couldn't afford to take time to clean himself up. Now that she was on guard against him, it was unlikely he'd be able to overdose her. She had her back turned on him when he noticed a decorative scarf sitting on the counter. Before, he'd been completely disgusted by her seeming inability to clean up after herself, but now the dull brown garment presented him with a perfect opportunity to get rid of his target.


	26. Chapter 26

There was nothing Gemma hated more than situations being allowed to become out of her control. Her grandsons were still at a location that only Tara knew and Gemma herself was still bleeding steadily from her broken nose. She'd had to ask her son to drive her to the ER, although there was no way he could go inside covered in the blood of one of St. Thomas's doctors. Still, he'd dropped her off outside the doors before heading off to torch the car that was also soaked through with the doctor's blood.

The moment she pushed her way through the ER door, Gemma suddenly felt like a bad situation was about to get worse. Seated at the admittance desk was a nurse that Gemma could only describe as Barbie's less plastic older sister. The woman was taller than Gemma by at least a couple of inches and was way too blonde. Disgustingly pink scrubs were an added offense, and every time Gemma had seen her in the past she'd been way too cheery. However, now the intolerable nurse was the one thing standing between her and treatment for her broken nose, and Gemma was beginning to feel too faint and lightheaded to consider turning around and going elsewhere.

Slowly she approached the front desk, finding herself feeling incredibly heavy and sluggish. Something in Gemma hoped the perky nurse would at least temporarily lose her cool at the sight of the blood streaming down her face.

However, the other woman remained completely cool and overly cheery. "How can I help you?"

"Look, sweetheart," Gemma growled, "I don't know what they taught you in Barbie medical school, but my nose is broken." When she took a break to attempt to stare down the irksome woman, she found a pain beginning to form in her jawbone. In the seconds before she blacked out, she realized that she was in the process of having a potentially massive heart attack.

xxx

Some people could clearly remember the worst day of their life as a singular entity. For Chibs, it was a little less clear. Instead of a singular day, the amount blurred. Too many recent days had made the list though. Too many relationships had been shattered and his friends were rapidly meeting bloody ends while the one man he wanted dead continued to evade him. A weaker man would have broken much earlier, but Chibs didn't consider himself weak. Still, he had finally reached his breaking point after seeing Tara on that couch and hearing Juice's murder.

By the time he got back to his house, he was almost completely numb to the others with him. Instead of worrying about what his daughter or his wife were doing, his brain turned on the most basic response as it had multiple times before. His clothes and skin were bloody and the only logical option was to clean them. The water felt good on his body, however, there was something about watching Tara's blood circle into his shower drain that made every emotion he'd tried to avoid flood his body. Instead of composing himself as he'd hoped he broke down crying alone in the shower. Softly he closed his eyes hoping that being unable to see the red streaks would keep him from fully breaking down.

Instead, it made him feel almost small and unsafe. At that exact moment, he heard a clear rustling outside the shower door. In a futile attempt to defend himself from who his brain immediately assumed had to be Jimmy O'Phelan his eyes flew open and he gripped the closest item which happened to be a shampoo bottle. If his nemesis had truly been standing outside the shower, the other man would surely have laughed. However, instead, the figure that stepped through the shower curtain easily deflected the bottle he'd instinctively swung and instead stepped fully into the shower with him.

"Are you okay love?"

He wasn't okay, and he knew Fiona had already figured this out, but the last thing he wanted to do at that moment was bare his soul even to someone he knew would never use it against him. Instead, he chose to try to plaster on a fake face as he dropped the shampoo bottle back on the shelf. "How are Kerri and the boys?"

"She's got them set up with some cartoons to keep their minds off today, but you have to answer my question too."

Chibs sighed, "I guess I have to be, otherwise we're gonna be eaten alive."


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A certain character that many (myself included) probably have mixed feelings about appears in this chapter (and multiple other chapters). I felt like there were two versions of said character, the way Unser described her and the way she was actually shown. And because I think I would have liked Unser's Jarry a lot more than the series version, that's who appears in this fic (although you're free to also think of the character as an OC since she's really different from the general series portrayal). Also, if I get details about Unser's description of her wrong feel free to correct me. I haven't rewatched any portions of season seven since it aired and usually like to pretend it never happened. The third point is we're working under the assumption that Jarry was actually going to be one of Roosevelt's deputies originally and she was going to start close to when he got murdered so she was already in Charming but didn't know enough about the chaos it was.

The sheriff of Charming was supposed to be elected in a democratic fashion, not as a shoe-in. However, the city was crippled and it just so happened that there was someone who was either brave or foolish enough to take the position in the wake of Eli Roosevelt's death. Althea Jarry had previously worked with a drug task force and had done well in such a role, but it was yet to be proved if she was ready for the battleground that Charming had become. So, a day after she was supposed to be sworn in as one of Roosevelt's deputies instead she was sworn in as sheriff and visiting the scene where Juice Ortiz had begged for his life.

Now lifeless, Juice was still lying under a grey Mercedes. When Jarry arrived at the scene, which had been called in by a neighbor, the biker's body was still uncovered. Jarry found herself unintentionally making brief eye contact with the dead man's glassy eyes before turning away to one of the deputies.

"Jesus Christ, can't we cover him up?" Jarry asked the deputy, finding herself shaken by the dead man's gaze.

As the man nodded, she found her eyes traveling across the road to where a typical looking suburban couple was watching.

Looking up, the deputy followed her gaze "husband's the one who called it in. Figured I'd leave it to the new sheriff to talk with them."

There was almost disdain in the way he said "new sheriff," but Jarry chose to ignore it and instead walked over to where the pair was still standing and extended her hand to the husband.

"Sheriff Althea Jarry. Deputy Cane told me you might have information about this homicide."

"What happened to Roos-" the man's wife elbowed him sharply in the ribs before he could finish his question prompting him to change his response and take Jarry's hand and give it a firm shake. "I'm Chandler Willows and this is my wife Izzy."

"And what can you tell me about what you witnessed Mr. Willows?"

"I saw the shooter," the man responded.

Jarry found herself raising her eyebrows and clearing her throat in surprise. "Could you make out any identifying details?"

"I didn't see his face, but he was white, and he had a good looking back."

"Excuse me?" Jarry was unsure if she'd heard him right. It was odd that someone would mention such a detail with a corpse several feet away, not to mention within the local area there were probably thousands of Caucasian men with nice looking backs.

"He was shirtless and it was kind of obvious that he probably worked out a lot," Chandler stated as if it was completely relevant to the case.

"Honey, I think she wants details she can actually use," his wife hissed.

"Oh, he had an accent. Irish, I think, and he was yelling at the murder victim."

Jarry sighed, feeling like she'd had enough of the dysfunctional couple.

As she turned to talk again with Cane, Chandler added one more comment. "He took off in that direction."

Having heard every word, Cane looked like he wanted to laugh but instead composed himself. "That was the least heterosexual description I've ever heard. It did narrow down the suspect list though."

"Maybe the standards are different where I'm from, but our witness didn't give us enough information to put out an APB."

"Ortiz is a member of a club that's currently involved in a gang war with several members of the IRA," after a pause he added "Roosevelt would want to knock on doors now. Of course, that's what got him killed, but ninety-nine percent of the time it was a good strategy."

Before Jarry could respond, a female officer yelled from down the street. "I think we found the victim's bike!"

Without thinking, Jarry raced towards the sound of the deputy's voice. The bike in question appeared to have been kicked over and was lying in front of a small, modest-looking house.

Cane raced to follow her and after a moment he asked: "Isn't this the house of Jax Teller's former old lady?"

"The SAMCRO president?"

For a moment Cane looked impressed by her seeming knowledge of the local criminal element, but then he added: "former president, SAMCRO is also currently at a gang war with themselves."

"Well, she probably can at least tell us why Ortiz was parked in front of her house."

"Doubtful. Wendy Case spends most of her time in a self-medicated state," Cane stated.

Feeling frustrated Jarry decided to knock on the door anyway. Several knocks yielded no response and, not having proper reasoning to enter without a warrant, Jarry was about to give up and walk away when she spied something through the window. Quietly, she unholstered her gun and motioned to the other officers to do the same before trying the door and finding it unlocked.

After clearing all the rooms in the house, Jarry found herself focused on what she'd initially seen through the window. The leg that had been visible was attached to a second corpse. This one was female, blonde and appeared to have been strangled with the murder weapon still around her neck.

Before she could even ask the question, Cane stated: "you're definitely not gonna be able to haul her down to the station and play whatever cop game you like to play to find out why Ortiz was parked in front of her house."


	28. Chapter 28

As far as her brain was concerned, Tara was awake. However, the image, or lack of one, before her eyes told a different story. The sound of a beeping monitor told her she was inside a hospital as a patient, but she couldn't figure out where or why. Softly, she reached up to try to feel her face and found bandages covering it.

Before she could take the time to investigate further, Margaret Murphy's voice came from somewhere nearby "the bandages are there for a reason."

"What happened to me?"

Margaret was silent for a minute as if trying to debate which bits of knowledge about what had happened were important for Tara to know right then. "You were found on your couch."

This comment confused Tara, "Did I have an aneurysm? That would explain my memory loss. Was it a blood vessel leading to my eyes?"

"No," Margaret sounded like she wasn't sure if she wanted to tell Tara what had really happened. After a pause she added, deciding that Tara would appreciate honesty best "you were attacked. You lost a lot of blood and you've got some injuries that could still be life-threatening. You really don't remember anything?"

For a second Tara found herself straining her memory for any recollection of the attack. After a minute, one detail came to mind "I think I remember Chibs singing to me."

xxx

The previous night had been sleepless, spent with five people crowded into one bedroom. There were five instead of three because the club had somehow decided that without Tara and with Jax being a loose cannon that Abel and Thomas were best staying with those who had found them. At least the little boys thought it was one big sleepover and had only asked about what had happened once. Still, nobody else had slept. Chibs had been too wired to even stay in bed most of the night and had found himself pacing the room. Of course, this disturbed his wife and his daughter, who was lying on the floor, but both of them were also tense and wide awake.

What seemed like an eternity later, the morning sun peeked through the windows. Looking in the mirror Chibs saw a weary almost zombie-like looking man. If he'd been by himself this might have been a moment when he'd ignored what was a Catholic sin and ended it all or even use narcotics to trick his body into a needed slumber.

Instead, he got dressed and let Fiona make him a strong cup of Darjeeling.

It was around ten when a knock came at the door. Chibs pulled out his gun before instructing Fiona and Kerrianne to stay in the kitchen. Outside the door stood Deputy Cane with a woman in a sheriff's uniform.

"Jesus Christ, haven't you bothered us enough?" Chibs growled running a tired hand through his hair.

In response to his lack of an introduction, the woman decided not to provide one of her own and instead responded "you seem to be a popular guy. First, the sheriff dies right where we're standing and then your number is the last one a murdered man called before his death."

Absently, Chibs realized she must mean Juice and that made something inside his gut clench up. "I have nothing to say about that. Especially not to some pig that won't even give me their name."

The woman extended her hand "Althea Jarry. I'm the new sheriff in town and you'd do good to lower your gun and invite us inside."

Tiredly, Chibs lowered his gun, still with no plan to allow the new sheriff inside.

However, before he could react the woman peered over his shoulder. "Isn't that one of the sons of a murder victim? I think we need to have a talk at the station."

xxx

Jarry had lied about Tara Knowles being a murder victim. The last she had heard, Jax Teller's current old lady seemed to be actually improving, but there was no way to know what the man in front of her's involvement was in the crime. She knew that the man who had earned the name Chibs had a violent past before SAMCRO. The man had cultivated a relationship with the IRA at a young age, even going as far as marrying an IRA tied woman who had an equally unsavory record. As far as Jarry was concerned, both him and his wife, who was also brought to the station, were not just bad seeds but natural born killers. It was no stretch to believe that after breaking up from the club he'd decided to enact his vengeance on Tara Knowles-Teller and would decide to finish off the job if he knew she'd lived.

Hoping to make an example to show the club what happened, Jarry made sure to have both Filip Telford and his wife handcuffed and loaded into separate police cars. Much to her surprise, the biker's daughter insisted on sliding into the police car next to her mother and without someone present to watch them, Tara's young sons were forced along for the ride as well.

Once had the station, Jarry had called Margaret Murphy, a friend of Tara's and had her take them.

xxx

The new sheriff seemed all too eager to flaunt her prowess over SAMCRO and this was the last thing the club needed. It didn't help Chibs' mental state at all that she'd revealed that Tara was apparently deceased before pulling him away from his wife and daughter and handcuffing him in the back of a police cruiser. Now, in the interrogation room, he found himself almost in a broken state of not quite being all there.

"Tara Knowles must have done something to really piss you off. You brutalized her so badly, that if she'd survived she would have been completely blind. Of course, I'm sure you didn't care. Just another old lady after all."

Chibs had fully intended to keep quiet and return the sheriff's baiting with some kind of anti-response, but something about the casualness in which the woman referred to what had happened to Tara in her final hours made him angry. Instead of remaining stoic he found himself lunging towards the sheriff who was trying to get into his face as an intimidation tactic. The woman managed to move back in time to prevent him from slamming into her face, but he found himself almost growling at her. "Don't you ever disrespect her like that again!"


	29. Chapter 29

"Did you miss me already?"

Being that she'd been in Charming for less than a week, Jarry had no way of knowing if the joy in Dr. Gwen Reaser's voice was normal or fake friendliness, but it felt so misplaced for the profession of medical examiner and the presence of Juan Carlos Ortiz's nude, opened corpse that she felt almost lost by the tease. Reaser was the exact opposite of what Jarry had expected to find in the morgue. The medical examiners she had worked with before had been mostly men, and even outside of that mold Reaser was the exact opposite of what it seemed a town such as Charming would spit out. Even in her work, she appeared feminine and if the expensive glasses she was wearing were any indication, she liked to indulge herself.

Rather than respond in kind to the tease, Jarry found herself responding coldly. "You said you had something that might help the case."

The cheer in Reaser's voice disappeared, but rather than look offended she walked over to where an evidence bag sat on a table. "I found a hair on the victim that might belong to the woman you arrested in connection with the Tara Knowles case."

A DNA test on the hair sample could take days, if not weeks, time that Charming didn't have to stop the growing conflict in their city, but for now, a long kinky black hair with grey roots felt like enough evidence to use against a woman who was probably little more than a violent biker whore. Of course, the hair only showed that Fiona Larkin had touched Juice Ortiz at some point, but with evidence mounted against them, in an attempt to appear innocent biker types either gave too little information or too much information and despite how cold Larkin had acted during the early morning interview she was bound to give away something that put her and her husband away.

xxx

The new sheriff walked into the holding area practically foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog as if she had found the one piece of evidence that she was sure would solve Tara's murder and Fiona silently almost prayed that whatever supposed evidence had been found was more worthy of her questions than those of her husband.

She didn't think he would spill some juicy secret that would land both of them permanently in jail for Tara's murder, that wasn't his style and there was nothing to spill. However, sometime between when they were thrown in jail that morning and the sheriff's return, a persistent problem that had plagued him since boyhood had developed. The headaches came on randomly, but stress and lack of sleep could certainly intensify them. Now, he was in the throes of what looked to be one of his worse ones. The officers had accepted her explanation that it was only a migraine. Or maybe they'd decided they didn't care if one of "Charming's finest" died in a jail cell. Either way, they'd only allowed her to watch helplessly from across the aisle while he curled into a ball on the floor of his own cell and their daughter paced terrified across the room.

Now, although she knew it was the exact opposite of productive, she wished she could punch the new sheriff in the face for callously hauling them in and putting her husband and daughter in a position to be terrified and humiliated especially while there was so much to do outside the jail walls.

Almost as if she'd heard her thoughts, the lady sheriff stopped outside her cell. "So, what offense did your husband commit that caused you to poison him? Did you slip something in that tea you gave him before we arrested you two?"

Although the sheriff had no idea about the incident only a few years earlier where she'd held a gun to Gemma Teller's head after Gemma had tried to shoot Jimmy O'Phelan, Fiona had a feeling the other woman was looking to incite the same emotion in her that had boiled to the surface then or at least some version of that emotion, something that would make her raw and stupid enough to blurt out some useful tidbit.

Instead of taking the bait, she returned to the cold steely tone that she'd taken during the morning showdown with the deputy. "He suffers from migraines. Afraid he has his whole life, but that's not why you're talking to me again. If you think you have something that requires you to talk to me again, take me to the interrogation room and let my daughter get something to drink. Filip needs silence and darkness."

Almost as if to confirm her statement, Chibs sat up and vomited once, all over himself as Jarry opened up her cell and began to lead her to the other room.

As soon as Fiona was seated, the sheriff began to pull out a file folder only to have several pictures tumble out of it and land unceremoniously on the table in front of her. Fiona almost didn't care to look until she saw the other woman's face betraying an emotion that could best be described as a darker version of the child caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Whatever was in the spilled file wasn't even supposed to be in the same room with her.

In response to the look, Fiona glanced at the table as Jarry hurriedly gathered up the photos back into the file. From what she was able to see, she could tell the contents were hospital photos, of a woman who had brown hair. Before Jarry could hide all the photos safely back in their folder, she snatched one away to get a closer look at it.

The photo Fiona held in her hands wasn't a hospital photo, but one of a woman's coat, covered in blood. It was the same coat she'd bought almost a year earlier and only the previous day given to Filip to help cover Tara Knowles after they'd found her in her living room.


	30. Chapter 30

Maybe it was the lack of sleep or the stress if the situation, but the reaction Fiona felt herself having to the picture of her coat in the case file was immediate and felt uncharacteristic even to her. In her time she'd seen far more corpses than she'd like to admit. She'd seen young men, little more than boys that had died as a result of Jimmy's stupidity, with their body parts lying strewn around them in the street. At the age of ten, she'd also been the one who had found her mother, dead on the kitchen floor of a brain aneurysm. At the age of forty, she'd held her younger brother as he cried while they both stared at the corpses of his wife and infant daughter who had been murdered after he'd dare to speak out against Jimmy's abuse towards her. However, there was something about there not being a corpse this time was what caused her to clasp her hand over her mouth as she fought back silent tears. Death was easy enough to handle, you were gone, taken to a hopefully happier place, but she knew from being with her Filip, even years later, that surviving something you weren't supposed to especially at the hands of another human being was hard.

Of course, the sheriff would likely take her reaction as a silent admission of guilt, but it was a reaction of the exact opposite meaning. It was one of compassion.

"You've seen that coat before haven't you?" Jarry asked before answering her own question. "Considering it was manufactured by a company that runs out of Belfast, Northern Ireland I think it would be safe to say it's yours. It's good quality too, with American money probably sixty, seventy dollars, so why would you allow it to be ruined by putting it on Tara Knowles' bloody body?"

Before Fiona could formulate a response that would satisfy the other woman, there was a knock at the interview room door and the black deputy popped his head into the room before Jarry got up to leave with him.

xxx

Outside the interview room with Deputy Cane stood another man who was wearing a suit. It was obvious that he was a big city detective, from the style of shoes he wore to the way he combed his hair and he looked almost comically out of place in the Charming police station.

"Detective Hannon is here from Oakland with the recording from Juan Carlos Ortiz's final phone call."

"What brings one of the big city boys to hand deliver evidence?" Jarry asked.

"I wish I could say I wanted to meet the new sheriff, but I'm actually on my way to see my daughter's play. That and I recognized who your victim was talking to in his final call."

Jarry was almost certain this new evidence would coincide with Fiona Larkin's hair being found on Ortiz's corpse and nodded her head towards the interview room door, silently asking if Larkin was their answer.

"Her husband." Cane responded in answer to the unasked question. "Ortiz was being followed by someone, likely the killer and he was scared, but he turned to Filip Telford in his final moments."

"I thought Telford was kicked out of the club?"

"There's more," Cane added.

"Filip Telford appears to have mentioned Tara Knowles in the course of the call, however, porcelain fragments pulled from Gemma Teller's nose wound will likely match the broken figurine found at Tara's crime scene."

xxx

Less than an hour later, Jarry was back at Saint Thomas hospital. This time her visit wasn't to talk to Tara Knowles or visit Dr. Gwen Reaser in the morgue but to ask some long overdue questions to Gemma Teller.

The older woman was sitting up in a hospital bed with several IVs attached to her arms and gauze covering her broken nose.

In the past hour, Jarry had begun to develop some doubts that Filip Telford and Fiona Larkin were involved in the attack in the way she had originally assumed they were. The look on Fiona Larkin's face when she saw the spilled photos of Tara was either one of a very good actress or someone who looked genuinely concerned about what had happened. That combined with how she had rushed to her husband's side to support him, ignoring how she became covered in his vomit after Jarry had told the deputy to give him two Excedrin pills to stop his migraine in an attempt to make him available for questioning, didn't paint a narrative of a heartless biker whore who changed men as fast as some women changed shoes. The coat had also been placed over Tara's body in a way that was almost indicative of wanting to protect her modesty and that combined with the photo that paramedics had found on her chest painted a contrast to the way she had been brutalized. Either Fiona Larkin had covered Tara as repentance for what her husband had done to her or by some odd coincidence the pair who had earlier witnessed the murder of the former sheriff had been the ones to discover Tara.

Gemma Teller, on the other hand, had no even vaguely sensible reason for why evidence from the crime scene had been found on her person.

Instead of outright telling the older woman that she was a suspect, Jarry decided to give her just enough rope that she could accidentally hang herself.

"We arrested Filip Telford and Fiona Larkin in connection with your daughter-in-law's murder. Can you think of any reason they might want to hurt her?"

Gemma was quick to jump on with a response. "That Irish bitch has always been bad news...and Chibs, he lost his way after she came back into his life. It's the reason why my son had to kick him out. "

"What do you mean by 'he lost his way?" Jarry asked, trying to prompt the woman who was now her prime suspect to take the rope.

"Look, sweetheart, I refuse to solve your case for you, but she was involved in some real kinky shit between the two of them."


	31. Chapter 31

Although Gemma Teller had managed to dig herself a deep hole that she would never crawl out of, there were still details of the attack on Tara that she refused to explain. Although the two people Jarry was already holding were far from first-class citizens it was looking more and more like one or both of them could be the best chance to get justice for Tara Knowles.

When Jarry returned to the jail, the biker Filip Telford only looked slightly less worse for wear than he had previously. Although he was now sitting up in his cell devoid of the vomit-stained wife beater he'd worn previously, he still looked extremely pale and refused to even open his eyes at the sound of her footsteps. Even if Jarry wanted to ask him questions, she'd likely get little more than one-word answers out of him.

However, yet again the wife looked promising, or at least like someone who was just frustrated and frazzled enough to cooperate. This time, the sheriff decided that taking her back to an interview room was far from the best strategy. Instead, she led the other woman outside before unhooking her handcuffs.

"What are you doing?" Fiona asked, eyeing the sheriff. Although she assumed the law enforcement in Charming were more civilized than the bribed cops back in Belfast, there was still a nagging part of her that wondered if she'd been bought out behind the police station only to be shot in the head.

"What do you want with me?" she asked warily.

"We're just going to be two women sharing a smoke," Jarry responded almost fake cheerful before pulling a cigarette pack out of her uniform pocket. Immediately she noticed that there was only a single cigarette in the pack. "I hope you're not too worried about the spread of germs."

For a moment Fiona glared at her, "stop trying to befriend me sweetheart and ask me exactly what you brought me out here to ask."

Jarry paused before speaking to light her cigarette. "Right, I'm still open to sharing though. I want to know exactly how you found Tara."

Unsure where to begin, Fiona found herself desperately wanting a "calming" puff from the offered cigarette before beginning and took the sheriff up on her offer before handing it back and choosing her words carefully. "There was so much blood I could have sworn she was already dead when we found her."

"Why were you at the house of the man who kicked your husband out of SAMCRO?"

Fiona turned to look at the sheriff inquisitively before taking the cigarette again. "Filip wasn't kicked out of the Sons. He chose to leave."

"Did Gemma Teller know this?"

"She accused me of manipulating my own husband after she found out what he did," Fiona growled in response.

Returning back to the questions about Tara's scene specifically, Jarry took back the cigarette from the other woman. "Were Abel and Thomas Teller at the scene too?"

"Under the bed in the bedroom. They didn't see anything." Fiona responded, hoping it was enough to keep the two young children from being put through hell again. It was enough that they'd been in the house at all during the attack, and the fact that they'd likely correctly identified their mother's attackers as their own father and grandmother made the whole situation even worse. There must have been something in her eyes that betrayed what she was trying to hide because Jarry picked up on it like a shark going for blood.

"Did they hear anything?"

"They heard everything. Too young to realize that she was being raped and practically murdered, but even children know when something bad is going on." As she spoke, her mind went back to the times when her own daughter had been forced to watch her being brutalized by Jimmy O'Phelan.

This time Jarry either didn't notice or chose not to pry, after all, they'd came from two different ways of viewing the world. Instead, in typical cop fashion, the sheriff zoned in on the part about how the young boys had heard everything. "Exactly how aware were they of what was going on? Did they understand who was hurting Tara?"

xxx

There were some people that seemed to exude an air of danger around them like a venomous snake prepared to strike at any moment. Normally, this was a distinction Margaret Murphy reserved for the members of SAMCRO, but the man that walked into St. Thomas just had that look about him. However, even criminals had families and she was almost ready to ignore him until he made a beeline for one of her nurses with that creepy predatory grin on his face.

It wasn't that Nurse Lily Hannon was small or weak, in fact at nearly six feet tall and weighing likely around one-hundred and fifty pounds, it was likely that if she so wanted to she could easily take down the offending man. However, thanks to much of Charming's chaos leading to the hospital, Nurse Lily had worked double shifts on little sleep and was also missing her daughter's first play and Margaret felt partially responsible for not being able to let her take off.

"I think you have rounds right now," Margaret stated, sliding up behind Nurse Lily as the man approached.

For a moment the nurse looked confused. She'd finished her rounds only a half hour earlier and it was not yet time for any patients to receive their medications again, but then her face lit up in the realization of what Margaret was doing. "I'm sorry. I should have remembered that. Thank you for reminding me."

The offending man approached the desk looking more than a little disappointed at who he had to deal with. "I'm here to see Gemma Teller."

The Irish accent was obvious and it didn't take Margaret long to realize that he had to be one of the IRA members that SAMCRO had recently begun a war with. Whatever his motive for the visit was, it likely didn't bode well for the heavily incapacitated Gemma Teller. However, Margaret had quickly figured out something else out about Gemma. The biker queen had likely been involved in the assault on Tara Knowles and for that, she'd lost any mercy Margaret might have felt for her.


	32. Chapter 32

"So you're too much of a coward to come after me until I'm lying in a hospital bed?" Gemma snorted as the figure entering her room became clear. "Your ex-wife isn't gonna be here to ensure your safety this time."

If Gemma's comment had rattled Jimmy O'Phelan, he didn't let it show. Instead, he paused to close the door and pull down the blinds on the window before making his way over to her bed, smiling the whole time.

Feeling nervous, Gemma tried again "you can't kill me in a fully staffed hospital and walk out of here alive."

"The thing is, I had an encounter with the hospital administrator, and I don't think she really cares that much whether you live or die. She seems to think you had something to do with what happened to Jax's old lady." Jimmy paused for a moment before continuing, taking in the tension and fear he'd created in the trapped woman. "Now that's not why you're going to die today, but I don't think anybody's going to come to your rescue."

There was no possible way out, and Gemma was beginning to realize this. After the heart attack, her body was weak and she doubted she'd manage to get far even if she managed to subdue Jimmy somehow. In a last attempt at safety, she started to reach for the panic button only to have Jimmy grab her wrist and pull it sharply away from freedom.

The button had been her last opportunity, and now that it was denied the sense of what was about to happen became clear.

"I don't think you're going to want to try that again," Jimmy said with a smirk.

"What...what are you going to do to me?!" Gemma tried to pull away from him without any success.

Instead of answering her, Jimmy took the pulse monitor off of her finger and placed it on his own before patting her on the shoulder "hey, it's all going to be over soon."

xxx

The moment she had the concrete evidence that Gemma and Jax had been behind the attack on Tara, Jarry had released her original suspects before placing an APB placed for Jax and headed back to the hospital to arrest Gemma. It wasn't that the older woman would be going anywhere. In fact, after the toll the heart attack had taken on her body, she might not even survive long enough to get a trial, but an arrest would mean that as soon as she was stable she could be transferred to the hospital ward of a prison where she would live out her last few months stripped of the power she'd once exuded over others.

The thought of putting the woman who had nearly taken Tara Knowles's life behind bars for good was what almost put an unnatural spring in her step as she entered St. Thomas. Instead of waiting for the hospital administrator to direct her to Gemma's room, she found her own way.

Upon entering the room, she was greeted with a sight that immediately made her draw her gun. The man on top of Gemma was too engrossed in his task to notice her immediately.

"Drop the pillow and put your hands where I can see them!"

Although he seemed like he was about to comply the man turned around with a smirk. "How many men did you let bend you over a squad car before they promoted you to sheriff?"

Jarry was almost taken off guard by his cocky perverted manner, but before she could find a way to respond a male officer who had to be at least 6'5" appeared in the doorway behind her. "I think you're going to want to do exactly what the sheriff asks."

For a moment the suspect continued to look cocky, but a form of resignation appeared in his eyes and he allowed the officer to cuff him as Jarry walked over to the bed and removed the pillow from Gemma Teller's face.

"Hopefully we'll have better luck bringing the son in."

xxx

The following night was a sleepless one. Jimmy O'Phelan had been taken by ominous men in suits before Jarry even had a chance to process him. Despite his role in the carnage of Charming, he was an international terrorist first and foremost and it was a losing battle arguing with the government. Gemma Teller, like so many others associated with SAMCRO, had gone to the morgue, however, as there was little urgency in catching her killer she had not demanded the attention she got in life and had spent the night in a drawer before one of Reaser's technicians began her autopsy the next morning.

Reaser, on the other hand, had spent the morning, like Jarry, at a new crime scene. In the predawn hours, two motorcycle cops had spotted Jax Teller. As if he wanted to be found, the young man had ridden to the spot where years earlier John Teller had lost his life. The motive for what happened next was open to speculation, but in the end, both cops were dead and Jax Teller's blood and brain mattered were painted over the memorial to his deceased father in a way that was almost poetic.


	33. Epilogue

Five Years Later

Tara couldn't pinpoint the exact moment that true happiness had stolen into her life, but somewhere between the moment when she was attacked in Charming and now, five years later it had. The club had paid all her medical bills from St. Thomas, and although she didn't know where exactly the money had come from she was grateful. However, the day she'd been released from the hospital, two months after the attack something else had happened. In the waiting room of the hospital, she'd been offered a way out for her and her sons from the last people she expected to include her in their chance at happiness.

Of course, she was still blind, and heavily scarred and that would be her demon to carry with her for the rest of her life, and for a while, she'd truly hated herself for it, but looking back now it didn't define who she'd become.

The path she'd taken was a strange one though. Now, the hands that had once performed precise surgeries on hospital patients built intricate floral arrangements. It was a profession she'd never considered while sighted and it seemed an even odder choice while blind, but she'd learned to identify the flowers by smell and feel and it wasn't as if she was without a partner in the business. It had seemed odd initially that Fiona Larkin was a gifted florist, but over time, the woman whom Gemma had once insisted was pure evil had become not only Tara's colleague but one of her closest friends and eventually even her sister-in-law.

Marriage had also been one of the last things she'd expected for her path so soon after the attack, but somewhere in her attempts to keep her sons safe and happy while starting out in a new country with new challenges it had slipped in. Craig Larkin was Fiona's half-brother. Initially, he'd felt like everything she wanted to avoid. Like his sister, he had an IRA past, and this seemed like something that would hint at a violent lifestyle. However, that wasn't who Craig Larkin was. At one point he'd been involved in the family cause, but he'd picked a fight with Jimmy O'Phelan over his sister's treatment and that had resulted in the murder of his first wife and child. That had been a decade before he met Tara, and it had caused him to disappear from the cause, instead moving to a small almost anonymous Irish village. There he'd become a mechanic. This too had sounded all too familiar to Tara, but his work was honest not a front for a criminal organization. In fact, in the present day, the staff consisted of Craig Larkin, Filip Telford and two other men who'd spent their whole lives in the village. The moment she'd met him she also felt something different than she had with her past boyfriends, including Jax. Initially, it hadn't felt like romantic love, but like a friendship; one similar to what she still felt for his sister and brother-in-law. However, over the days and weeks after she met him, she noticed little things. Her boys felt happy and safe around him and he never once pried into what had happened to her even though whenever she needed an outside perspective on things he often became her shoulder. He also made her laugh harder than she remembered laughing in a long time. Three years ago they'd said their vows. She'd recruited Chibs to walk her down the aisle.

xxx

In the present day, they were at another wedding. Chibs had walked the bride down the aisle this time too, but as an actual father giving his daughter away. Kerrianne and her new husband were both beaming happily and dancing around the floor seemingly lost in each other.

The parents of the bride had spent a good portion of the night dancing too, but Tara and Craig had remained seated. To add to Tara's obvious blindness problem, Craig seemed to be perpetually blessed with two left feet. There was another problem preventing the couple from taking the floor though, tiny two-year-old Faye Larkin had crawled up onto her father's lap and promptly fallen asleep. That didn't prevent the other members of the immediate family from taking to the floor though.

Eight-year-old Abel was now dancing with Maureen Ashby. Although Abel remembered none of his first meeting with the Irish woman and was even unaware that her daughter was the last living connection to his biological father, he seemed to adore her and even though she was currently teasing him about stepping all over her toes, it was clear Maureen felt some protective paternal instinct towards him.

Seven year old Thomas on the other hand was loudly giggling while playing tag with several other children who were at the reception.

Although it had been a journey that had to be taken across many years and many thousands of miles, this was what true happiness looked like.


End file.
